

The Berry Pickers
Books | Fiction / Indigenous
4
(60)
Amanda Peters
NATIONAL BESTSELLERWINNER 2023 BARNES & NOBLE DISCOVER PRIZEWINNER of the ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL for EXCELLENCE in FICTIONWINNER Best First Novel, Crime Writers of Canada AwardWINNER Dartmouth Book Award for FictionFINALIST Amazon First Novel AwardFINALIST for the Atwood-Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction PrizeFINALIST Margaret and John Savage First Book Award, FictionFINALIST Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction AwardFINALIST OLA Forest of Reading Evergreen AwardLonglisted for the First Nation Communities READA four-year-old girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a tragic mystery that remains unsolved for nearly fifty years July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, is seen sitting on her favourite rock at the edge of a field before mysteriously vanishing. Her six-year-old brother, Joe, who was the last person to see Ruthie, is devastated by his sister’s disappearance, and her loss ripples through his life for years to come.In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as an only child in an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, while her mother is overprotective of Norma, who is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem to be too real to be her imagination. As she grows older, Norma senses there is something her parents aren’t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she pursues her family’s secret for decades.A stunning debut novel, The Berry Pickers is a riveting story about the search for truth, the shadow of trauma, and the persistence of love across time.
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More Details:
Author
Amanda Peters
Pages
304
Publisher
HarperCollins
Published Date
2023-04-04
ISBN
1443468193 9781443468190
Community ReviewsSee all
"Ruthie is the youngest of her family. Until she disappears.
Norma doesn’t feel quite right in her life. She has disturbing, familiar-feeling dreams and struggles to relate to her parents.
The intersection of these two situations made me cry. Highly recommend.
"
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Jackie Davidson
"I was expecting more of a mystery, but it was about tragic circumstances and the resulting consequences on the lives of those affected. It was easy to bond with the characters and their respective stories. While not a happy read the ending made the journey worth it. "
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Katie Harrison
"This book is great for Indigenous and non-Indigenous readers! I feel the narrator has enough in-group references that won’t put off anyone who doesn’t immediately understand or have a foundational knowledge. As being part of the in-group, I really enjoyed it. This is a truly beautiful debut and you can tell the author put her entire heart into writing this. If you are a fan of highlighting memorable one-liners or segments of a paragraph this is a great choice to reach for. If you are Indigenous and want something that helps in exploring cultural identity (whether you are dismantling internalized prejudices or want to thoughtfully connect with your ancestry) this is an excellent read for that. As someone who has done a lot of work in that respect already, I didn’t find this to be particularly groundbreaking *for me*, but I can see how someone else would really connect with this and find it extremely moving (because it is and a worthwhile read for any given reason or season!)"
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Joslyn
"Started: Feb. 4 | Finished: Feb. 14 | Pages: 304"
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Emma G
"Maine"
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Rachel Joy
"sad and dull! sweet ending and sometimes the writing was good but overall i didn’t really enjoy "
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alex
"This book has great reviews but for me, it was a miss. It was pretty predictable and didn’t grab or hold my attention. "
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Heidi Oneil
"Although I could guess what was going to happen at the end, the journey getting there was thoroughly enjoyable! I read this in a day . As I learn more and more about what was done to native people, a book like this reminds of the injustice in a way that educates without preaching."
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Lynne Stroyne
"The Canadian setting was very interesting. There was a nod of respect towards the church life in the community, which is pretty rare in fiction. Aging issues were poignantly addressed. If you liked missing baby stories in soaps and news shows growing up, you will like this book."
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Robin Eschliman
"Very slow read. The content was flat. Overall, the story was a good one, but it just couldn't get going."
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Alicia RIdlen