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 She is the winner of the 2021 Indigenous Voices Award for unpublished prose and a participant in the 2021 Writers’ Trust Rising Stars Program.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

[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.

[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!

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

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

[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.