Berry Pickers

A missing child. A family forever changed. And a secret that will remain buried for nearly fifty years.

In the summer of 1962, a Mi’kmaq family travels from Nova Scotia to Maine to work the blueberry harvest, as they have done for years.

Then four-year-old Ruthie disappears.

Her six-year-old brother, Joe, is the last person to see her, sitting at the edge of a berry field. Ruthie’s disappearance leaves a wound that follows Joe and his family for decades as they struggle with grief, guilt, and unanswered questions.

Meanwhile, in Maine, a girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an affluent family. Her father remains distant while her mother is intensely protective. But Norma is haunted by dreams and fragments of memory that don’t seem to belong to the life she has been told is hers.

As she grows older, Norma becomes increasingly convinced that her family is hiding something.

Told across decades and through intertwined lives, The Berry Pickers is a moving novel about family, identity, loss, belonging, and the devastating consequences of secrets kept for too long.

Perfect for readers who love: literary fiction, historical fiction, family secrets, Indigenous stories, dual perspectives, missing-person mysteries, complicated families, emotional character-driven novels, and book club reads.

Author: Amanda Peters
Genre: Literary Fiction / Historical Fiction / Indigenous Fiction / Family Saga
Language: English
Format: Trade Paperback
Pages: 320
Publisher: Catapult
Publication Date: October 29, 2024
EAN/ISBN: 9781646222384

Awards:
Winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction
Winner of the 2023 Barnes & Noble Discover Prize