The Berry Pickers
A Novel
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4.3 • 345 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
2023 Barnes & Noble Discover Prize Winner
Winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction
A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a mystery that will haunt the survivors, unravel a family, and remain unsolved for nearly fifty years
"A stunning debut about love, race, brutality, and the balm of forgiveness." —People, A Best New Book
July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, vanishes. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother, Joe, sitting on a favorite rock at the edge of a berry field. Joe will remain distraught by his sister’s disappearance for years to come.
In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, her mother frustratingly overprotective. Norma is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem more like memories than imagination. As she grows older, Norma slowly comes to realize there is something her parents aren’t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she will spend decades trying to uncover this family secret.
For readers of The Vanishing Half and Woman of Light, this showstopping debut by a vibrant new voice in fiction is a riveting novel about the search for truth, the shadow of trauma, and the persistence of love across time.
"A harrowing tale of Indigenous family separation . . . [Peters] excels in writing characters for whom we can’t help rooting . . . With The Berry Pickers, Peters takes on the monumental task of giving witness to people who suffered through racist attempts of erasure like her Mi’kmaw ancestors." —The New York Times Book Review
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The threads that bond a Canadian Mi’kmaq family become knotted in Amanda Peters’ poignant debut novel. Joe is just six years old when his little sister, Ruthie, vanishes without a trace while the family is blueberry picking in Maine—and the weight of the mysterious loss changes them all forever. Elsewhere in Maine, an only child named Norma grows up with the uneasy feeling that not everything in her household is what it seems. Peters weaves the stories of Joe’s and Norma’s parallel lives together with incredible detail. From marriages and miscarriages to residential schools and racism, The Berry Pickers explores the lives of a loving Indigenous family and the lengths that people will go to bury—and seek out—the truth. It’s a thoughtful, empathetic tale of love and loss that will stick with you long after you’ve put it down.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Peters's enthralling debut tracks the lives of two siblings from an Indigenous Canadian family working in Maine as seasonal berry pickers. In the summer of 1962, four-year-old Ruthie is kidnapped by a white New England woman, who renames her Norma and raises the girl as her daughter. Meanwhile, Ruthie's brother Joe, who was six years old at the time of the kidnapping, never forgives himself for not keeping an eye on his sister. Joe's perspective alternates with Norma's, who shares her dim recollections of her real mother ("It's just a dream," she's told by her new parents) with her imaginary friend, "Ruthie." Joe spends most of his life guilt-ridden by his sister's disappearance. Norma, meanwhile, is haunted by the puzzling gaps in her family history: there are no pictures of her before the age of five, and her skin is darker than her parents' (she's told that she takes after an "Italian great-grandfather"). Joe acts out in rage and resorts to alcohol to cope, while Norma builds a life for herself as a teacher and a wife. Peters traces their experiences over several decades, and their reunion, when it finally comes, is powerfully rendered. The result is a cogent and heartfelt look at the ineffable pull of family ties.
Customer Reviews
So excellent in every way
The story is well told and believable, and the characters are wonderful.
Fantastic rollercoaster of emotions…
This was such a beautiful read. Amanda Peters is a powerful writer.
Amazing storytelling. Delightful family journeys.
I thoroughly enjoyed every chapter of this book. It is incredibly well written. The story is all about family and family struggles. I am so happy I chose to read it.