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Barb takes care of the web orders here at Boffins, and is your contact for book club enquiries. She spends all her spare time curled up on the couch reading and for the last several years has reviewed books on the Afternoon Program on ABC radio Perth.
This has definitely been one of my favourite reads this year. There’s something about Canadian writers. Their work often resonates so strongly, and they are such good storytellers. Like us, they exist in a vast country, sparsely populated and extreme in climate. Their history, particularly when it comes to the indigenous people, their treatment, survival and current issues, has strong parallels with Australia. Katherena Vermette is a Métis (mixed heritage) woman, and her beautiful, if confronting, first novel is populated by the Anishinaabe, white and Métis people of Winnipeg. A young Métis mother, Stella, witnesses a violent crime and calls the police. The novel tells the story of the effect of that crime. It is extremely confronting, but at the same time, The Break is also a story of strength, resilience and survival. What I like most about it is its depth, breadth and balance. All the characters, no matter how small a part they have to play, are brought to life with a fine and nuanced detail. It is not simply a story of male perpetrators and female victims, and is particularly strong on the legacy, good and bad, passed down the generations.
