Description
katherena vermette (she/her) is a Red River Métis (Michif) writer from Treaty 1 territory, the heart of the Métis Nation, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. vermette received the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry for her first book, North End Love Songs. Her first novel, The Break, won several awards including the Amazon First Novel Award, and was a bestseller in Canada. Her second novel, The Strangers, won the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, named Indigo’s 2021 Book of the Year, and was a #1 national bestseller. Her work in children’s literature includes the graphic novel series A Girl Called Echo. vermette lives with her family in a cranky old house within skipping distance of the temperamental Red River.
The day that Cedar Sage Stranger has been both dreading and longing for has finally come: her sister Phoenix is getting out of prison. The effect of Phoenix’s release cascades through the community. M, the young girl whom she assaulted, is triggered by the news. M’s mother, Paulina, is worried and her cousin Jake is angry—all feel the threat of Phoenix’s release. Cedar and her mother, Elsie, continue down different paths of healing. When Phoenix is seen lingering outside the school to catch a glimpse of her son, Sparrow, the police get a call to file a report—but the next thing they know, she disappears.
Amid accusations and plots for revenge, past grievances become a poor guide in a moment of danger, and the short-sighted armature of law enforcement is no match for the community. Told from various perspectives, with an unforgettable voice for each chapter, the novel masterfully parallels a Restorative Justice Circle where all gather—both the victimized and the accused—to take account of a crime that has altered the course of their lives.
Fierce, heartbreaking, and profound, vermette’s The Circle is the third and final companion novel to her bestsellers The Break and The Strangers. It considers what it means to be abandoned by the very systems that claim to offer support, how it feels to gain a sense of belonging, and the unanticipated cost of protecting those you love most.