The novel begins with a description of the eponymous section of the city: “The Break is a piece of land just west of McPhillips Street. A narrow field about four lots wide that interrupts all the closely knit houses on either side and cuts through every avenue from Selkirk to Leila” (3). As the title suggests, then, the “Break” is connected to specific land and places in the North End. But the “break” is also representative of the pain, disturbance, and dislocation that affect that community and drive the novel’s plot and character development.