By Julie Kish
Canadian author Amanda Peter’s debut novel is a powerfully moving story about the mysterious disappearance of a five-year-old girl. In addition to being a gripping mystery, The Berry Pickers is a thought-provoking commentary on the discrimination faced by Indigenous communities and the agony endured by the families of displaced Indigenous children.
The story begins in the summer of 1962 when the members of a Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia make their annual trip to Maine to work as blueberry pickers. The parents and their five children work in the field, including the youngest, four-year-old Ruthie. During this trip, the family suffers a traumatic blow when little Ruthie vanishes. Her six-year-old brother Joe was the last to see her as she sat on a rock at the edge of the field. For six weeks, the family searched desperately for Ruthie. The local authorities didn’t help much, claiming they weren’t responsible for a Mi’kmaq child from a transient family. Eventually, the family had to return to Nova Scotia without Ruthie.
The story is told by two voices in alternating chapters. Ruthie’s brother Joe begins by telling the story of his sister’s disappearance, and we discover he feels responsible for the tragedy even though he was only six years old at the time. This devastating guilt haunts him throughout his life, causing him to become a tortured soul who makes poor choices.
The other narrator is a girl from Maine named Norma. She grows up in a wealthy household with an overprotective and emotionally troubled mother. Norma is tormented by dreams she cannot understand, and she comes to realize her parents have horrific secrets. She will spend decades trying to uncover those secrets.
By the end of the first two chapters, the reader has likely figured out who Norma is, but this doesn’t detract from the riveting story.
I was utterly engrossed in this book, which spans almost fifty years. It’s skillfully written with beautiful prose and complex, multi-dimensional characters. There are heavy topics and heart-wrenching scenes, but there is a sense of hopefulness at the end.
Amanda Peters is a writer of Mi’kmaw ancestry. She is an associate professor at Acadia University and lives in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia.
The Berry Pickers won the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and was named one of CBC Books’ best fiction books of the year. It was number two on Amazon’s list of the Best Books of 2023.