Will I love The Berry Pickers?

I was captivated by this story with its long-held shocking family secret, plus I love learning something new in a novel, and am especially fascinated learning about Native American tribes, as I did in this book.

The characters are layered and well-drawn. They jump off the page. They’ve stayed with me long after I, reluctantly, closed the book. 

Set in Nova Scotia and Maine, where the berries are picked by Indians, as they’re still called, this is amoving story, alternating chapters between Joe, the son of the berry-picking family, and Norma, his sister Ruthie, who was kidnapped by a child-hungry town woman and raised as her own. Suspense, sensory details, and so much emotion—guilt, loss, anger, and love—easily expressed by the Indian family and not at all, by Norma’s adoptive family—that influence course of the characters’ lives. I learned a lot about a historical era I knew nothing about.

I adore a book with long-held shocking family secrets, and Amanda Peters brings this in her captivating story while introducing the reader to a little-known Native American tribe. Her well-drawn characters will stay with me a long time. I highly recommend this book, whether you listen on audio as I did or read a print or digital copy.

A work of art. Emotionally complex. The story pulls you in. For me, it was all the more poignant that this beautifully written story about a terrible event and its aftermath is set against the backdrop of the blueberry barrens on Maine.

A four-year old indigenous girl goes missing while her Nova Scotia migrant family picks blueberries in Maine. Her older brother by two years carries the weight of his failure to protect her, and his grief and shame write the story of his life. Everything about this book is wonderful. I was drawn deeply into it at once and became engrossed in the story, which travels through 50 years and ends with both sadness and joy. Read it. Great book club pick.