The breaking - Kathryn Heyman

Eleven-year-old Sarah 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 Sweet has learnt to observe, to be quiet, to avoid notice, filled with a rage so intense it threatens to overwhelm her. THE BREAKING is the story of a family tainted by its force, 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.