Sarah Sweet is a watcher. She sees the way the smoke rises from the sulphide works to wreath the little Australian town of Boolaroo; she watches Dad, when he’s not being a policeman, breaking horses in the back paddock behind the house. Sarah has learnt to observe, to be quiet, to avoid notice, filled with a fury so intense it threatens to overwhelm her.The Breaking is the story of a family tainted by the force of rage, of a young life haunted by it, but also of the strength it gives to fight back. In its evocation of the parched landscape of rural Australia, the strange cadences of the language and the filmic vividness of its characters, The Breaking is a unique, lyrical testament to the power of the human spirit.‘The Breaking is a book of opposites: rural heat, city rain; male power and female powerlessness; paternal tenderness and a lover’s violence; silences and singing. This strong first novel is remarkable for its depiction of a family drama played out in an arid small town, with the local lock-up in the backyard, and Sarah Sweet’s slow education in love and change, courtesy of a glowing, nail-biting taxi driver.