The Berry Pickers

Written by Amanda Peters

Narrated by Aaliya Warbus and Jordan Waunch

A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a tragic mystery that haunts the survivors, unravels a family, and remains unsolved for nearly fifty years

July 1962. Following in the tradition of Indigenous workers from Nova Scotia, a Mi’kmaq family 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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9798890598318

Amanda Peters

AMANDA PETERS is a writer of Mi'kmaq and settler ancestry. Her debut novel, The Berry Pickers, was a critically acclaimed bestseller in Canada. Her work has appeared in the Antigonish Review, Grain, the Alaska Quarterly Review, the Dalhousie Review and Filling Station. She is the winner of the 2021 Indigenous Voices Award for unpublished prose and a participant in the 2021 Writers’ Trust Rising Stars Program. Peters has a certificate in creative writing from the University of Toronto, and she is a graduate of the master of fine arts program at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Amanda Peters lives and writes in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia, with her fur babies, Holly and Pook. 

Reviews for The Berry Pickers

[Erin Milam · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved the way this story explains the feelings of grief. Grief for unseen and events you never got to be part of. It makes you think about how people justify their actions without thinking of others.

[maggie Ballas · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Awesome book loved the story. Good characters . Would read more from this author

[Karen Bergt · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A story of family, love and loss and finding your way home.

[Linda Laccetti · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The writing is so well done….. I FELT every emotion each character experienced. I hated to see the book coming to an end and was left in a puddle of tears when it did….. my tears were not all sad tears but much joy was sprinkled throughout. I dread the “book hangover” I’m about to go through now while trying to find a novel on par to THIS ONE! If I could give it 10 stars, I would……
(By the way, this is the very first review I’ve submitted and I am an AVID reader!)

[regina · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Best part was the ending when she finds her roots

[June Benedick · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent book. Great character development. Once I started, I didn’t want to stop. As usual with a good book, not ready for it to end when it does. Highly recommend this book.

[Bobbi B · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

As the 7th child/baby of my family this really resonated with me. Fantastic story, very well told. I was certainly crying at the end. These characters will stay in my mind for a long time.

[Linda Oswald · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Started slow then took off. I like how it shifted between two characters.

[Karen Wallace · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fabulous Book! Read by two people. The character development was deep and resounding. I will think of these characters long from now

[Denise Delagarza Garza · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good story- but a little slow could have put more in when she met her family

[roxy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Nostalgia, grief, smooth and fondness are the words how I can describe this book. I enjoyed the gentle read.

[becca.busker · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The story was great but the audio was terrible and so distracting.

[bookczuk · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book really captured me. I've been bewailing taste in books, that has drifted to so many I've disliked, but this one both told a good story and taught me a lot. That's a fine combination. I really appreciate when a book does both of those. It opens my mind to places it's not seen before. The idea of a 4 year old going missing pierces my soul. (Had a friend whose young one, even younger than four, wandered off, and remember the tension of the community in the days he was missing, He finally was found after days alone in the woods, and told his mother that the glowing lady [and I think he said with wings but it's been too long to recall the details] helped him.) This story of a Nova Scotian Mik'maw family who go to Maine each year to work on a berry farm picking blueberries, grabbed my attention and held me close. Reading of the family and their traditions, the interactions of the five children over the the years and their parents, the disappearance of 4 year old Ruthie, and the subsequent lives of all the family was a gift. i'm sorry it took me so long to pick up the book.

[Andrea Comfort · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great book despite being a though story to tell. Good narration

[Christine Singh · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Love the premise of the story but needs more character development for Norma, she seemed shallow and emotionless

[Adele · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very moving and well told with characters that make you care about them, rejoice for them, cry for them.

[janismack · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Story of a family whose child was abducted and the family that abducted the child. This was a heartbreaking story where you learn what happens to the family that has a child abducted. There are huge consequences of the loss that is never far from their lives. The little girl who was abducted at 4 years old never fully forgets the family she belonged to.

[delphimo_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A young Indian girl disappears as her family picks berries in Maine. The family of parents and five children make the yearly trek from Nova Scotia to Maine to pick berries. But the youngest child, Ruthie, has disappeared. Two narrators navigate the story and all the woes and heartaches of the two families. Joe, the second youngest child, was the last to see Ruthie. He delivers a story filled with anger and unresolved answers. Norma, a six-year-old, living with her parents in luxury, tells a story of nightmares and unnatural feelings. Amanda Peters gently touches on the prejudice against Indians, and the bad treatment these hard-working individuals receive. One of the brothers, Charlie, is beaten to death by a gang of white boys. No justice comes for this untimely death. A grime picture of how the lower strata of society is handled.

[candyh_64 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I did not care for this book. It was very hard to follow in the beginning chapters. And then it just kind of went on and on.

[carriewuj · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

3.5 Out of nowhere, this book made Barnes and Noble's Best Books of the Year list. Definitely good story telling about some difficult topics. Told in the present day by Joe, as he is dying, and in past excerpts by Norma, about her mysterious childhood, the two converge in a way that is not surprising, but still has meaning. I don't think we are meant to finally 'get' the big reveal - I think it is more the story of the connection and validation for never giving up hope. Joe and his family are indigenous people (Mi'kmaq) from Nova Scotia, Canada who come down to Maine every year for berry picking. One summer, Joe's 4-yr-old sister Ruthie disappears. One minute she is eating lunch outside with her brother and the next minute she is nowhere to be found. This incident leaves an indelible mark on Joe and he struggles with anger and alcohol into his adult life. A couple years later, we hear from Norma, a little girl in a town outside Boston who has nightmares, and wonders why her skin is so brown compared to her parents (Italian grandfather) and other questions that give her mother headaches and cause her father to clam up and hide behind his books. For the reader, it's not so much that the truth be revealed, but more about how and when it will happen. For Norma, this uncertainty colors her adult life and relationships. Basically the family is in need of healing and becoming whole again before the loss of Joe will make that impossible.

[wvlibrarydude · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It finished off better than the journey through the book. It may appeal more to others, but I just didn't connect with any of the characters in a meaningful way. The focus is on Joe and Ruthie/Norma, with alternating chapters from their perspectives. It starts with Ruthie going missing at the age of 4 or 5, and progresses for another 50 years. There's personal pain both physical and emotional, there is family dynamics based on lies and suffering, but there is also resilience within family love.

[claire.rosenfrisk · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Sad. Exhausting, but good too. TW with kidnapping, miscarriage, and some violence.

[Dana Bearden · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The writing was divine. I’m fortunate I listened to this book instead of turning the page. The narrators were perfect. One of the best books I have ever read. Bravo!

[bookconcierge · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Digital audiobook narrated by Aaliya Warbus and Jordan Waunch.
5***** and a ❤

In 1962, an indigenous family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer, a family and tribal tradition. A month into the season the family’s youngest child, four-year-old Ruthie, vanishes. The last person to see her is her six-year-old brother Joe. Authorities aren’t too helpful, but other pickers join in an exhaustive search to no avail. This will haunt the family, and Joe, in particular, for decades.

In Maine, a girl named Norma grows up in an affluent family. Her father is kind but distant. Her mother is overprotective and suffers from headaches. Norma is plagued by dreams which seem real to her, but which her parents and extended family insist are just the stuff of childhood imagination. But as she grows to adulthood, Norma comes to realize that her family is hiding a deep secret from her.

This was a wonderful book. The characters come alive on the page. Their hurts, joys, struggles, connections, love, tenderness, anger, frustration and pain are shown through their actions and reactions. The author uses dual narrators, Joe and Norma, to tell the story. Of course, neither is aware of the other so the truth comes out slowly and painfully through their memories and efforts to deal with the trauma of their childhood. Through Joe and Norma, the reader also learns about the families – Joe’s parents, and siblings; Norma’s parents and aunt.

Were I in Norma’s shoes, I’m not sure I could have forgiven the parents who raised me for their subterfuge. And while I may have understood the underlying reasons for my parents’ actions to at least understand, I would have an ever harder time overlooking Aunt June’s complicity in the lie. On the other hand, they clearly raised a loving and compassionate child, so there is that.

I appreciated learning more about the racism – both subtle and overt – the indigenous peoples endured.

The audiobook is narrated by two talented voice artists: Ailiaya Warbus handles those chapters narrated by Norma and Jordan Waunch takes on Joe’s chapters. This was very effective, and really brought the characters to life for me.

[chasidar_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Excellent!

[Sheri Edelman · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It was a beautifully written story about love, loss, hope, death, and finding yourself.

[Andrea King · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I liked it. I really like that it is narrated by two people a male / female. It made it easy to follow if you get distracted while listening, you know who's prospective it is by the voice. Both voices are pleasant and easy to understand, the story and characters are interesting and I learned some about indigenous Nova Scotia people. Time listening well spent.

[Karen Chandler · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is an interesting storyline with believable characters. It goes into the damage a kidnapped child can bring to the family. It also delves into what problems it can bring to the kidnappers' families. This book is written very well.

[vwinsloe · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was one of those books where you know basically what happened, and the reader is drawn in to figuring out how and why it happened, and how the characters felt about it. The structure of the book uses first person accounts from two protagonists, one from the end of the story looking back at his memories, and the other in chronological order. It sounds complex, but it is quite seamless and evocative. Recommended.

[Meg Marsh · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A beautiful, heart wrenching book; worth every tear I’m sobbing right now.