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The Berry Pickers

Amanda Peters

Start date: October 1, 2025

Finish date: October 31, 2025

Discussion: Buddy Reads

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By Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Jenn Ƹ̴… , Founding Retro Chick · 128 posts · 22 views

last updated Aug 03, 2025 05:15AM

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What Members Thought

Oct 12, 2024 Maureen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

A Mi’kmaq family every summer travel from Nova Scotia to Maine to pick blueberries for a living. Ruthie, four years old goes missing one day. Her six year old brother Joe was the last to see her. She is kidnapped and becomes Norma. Joe is distraught his entire life and blames himself. Her family never gave up hope that she is alive.
This is a heartbreaking story told in two perspectives, Joe’s and Norma’s.
It is a heartfelt story of family secrets, guilt, drama and grief.
A story I won’t forget.

24 likes · Like · see review

Apr 29, 2025 Book Concierge rated it it was amazing

Shelves: book-club, family, racism, literary-fiction, maine, concierge, strong-women, native-american, canada, social-commentary

Digital audiobook narrated by Aaliya Warbus and Jordan Waunch.
5***** and a ❤

In 1962, an indigenous family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer, a family and tribal tradition. A month into the season the family’s youngest child, four-year-old Ruthie, vanishes. The last person to see her is her six-year-old brother Joe. Authorities aren’t too helpful, but other pickers join in an exhaustive search to no avail. This will haunt the family, and Joe, in particular, for Digital audiobook narrated by Aaliya Warbus and Jordan Waunch.
5***** and a ❤

In 1962, an indigenous family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer, a family and tribal tradition. A month into the season the family’s youngest child, four-year-old Ruthie, vanishes. The last person to see her is her six-year-old brother Joe. Authorities aren’t too helpful, but other pickers join in an exhaustive search to no avail. This will haunt the family, and Joe, in particular, for decades.

In Maine, a girl named Norma grows up in an affluent family. Her father is kind but distant. Her mother is overprotective and suffers from headaches. Norma is plagued by dreams which seem real to her, but which her parents and extended family insist are just the stuff of childhood imagination. But as she grows to adulthood, Norma comes to realize that her family is hiding a deep secret from her.

This was a wonderful book. The characters come alive on the page. Their hurts, joys, struggles, connections, love, tenderness, anger, frustration and pain are shown through their actions and reactions. The author uses dual narrators, Joe and Norma, to tell the story. Of course, neither is aware of the other so the truth comes out slowly and painfully through their memories and efforts to deal with the trauma of their childhood. Through Joe and Norma, the reader also learns about the families – Joe’s parents, and siblings; Norma’s parents and aunt.

Were I in Norma’s shoes, I’m not sure I could have forgiven the parents who raised me for their subterfuge. And while I may have understood the underlying reasons for my parents’ actions to at least understand, I would have an ever harder time overlooking Aunt June’s complicity in the lie. On the other hand, they clearly raised a loving and compassionate child, so there is that.

I appreciated learning more about the racism – both subtle and overt – the indigenous peoples endured.

The audiobook is narrated by two talented voice artists: Ailiaya Warbus handles those chapters narrated by Norma and Jordan Waunch takes on Joe’s chapters. This was very effective, and really brought the characters to life for me.
...more

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Feb 27, 2025 Celia rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: ten-year-challenge, canada, kindle-list, vero-book-club, recommended, historical-fiction-read, 2023-pub, supersummary-study-guide, 2025-read, 2025-kindle-counted

"The Berry Pickers" by Amanda Peters is a quietly devastating debut that lingers in your mind long after the final page is turned. The novel follows the interwoven lives of a Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia and a white family in Maine, connected by the disappearance of four‐year-old Ruthie during a summer berry-picking trip in 1962.

Peters masterfully employs alternating perspectives—one from Joe, the guilt-ridden brother whose life has been marked by unresolved grief, and the other from Norma, a "The Berry Pickers" by Amanda Peters is a quietly devastating debut that lingers in your mind long after the final page is turned. The novel follows the interwoven lives of a Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia and a white family in Maine, connected by the disappearance of four‐year-old Ruthie during a summer berry-picking trip in 1962.

Peters masterfully employs alternating perspectives—one from Joe, the guilt-ridden brother whose life has been marked by unresolved grief, and the other from Norma, a young woman haunted by mysterious dreams and familial discrepancies.

At its core, the story is about the search for identity and belonging amid the backdrop of historical and systemic injustice. The novel examines the effects of intergenerational trauma and the marginalization of Indigenous voices, all while portraying a poignant, sometimes heartbreaking, exploration of family secrets and the human need for closure. Despite its somber themes, there is a persistent thread of hope and resilience that offers a measure of redemption to its characters.

The prose is lyrical, evoking the stark beauty of the blueberry fields and the quiet desperation of those left behind.

"The Berry Pickers" gripped me. It is an empathetic portrayal of how a single, unresolved tragedy can echo through generations, challenging its characters to confront both their personal demons and the broader injustices of their world. This novel moved me to research the bitter legacy of Canadian Forced Assimilation Practices, Nova Scotia geography, and Maine wild blueberry picking. The author resides in Annapolis Valley Nova Scotia. The center of blueberry picking in Maine is Cherryfield. The author did not make clear WHERE in these two areas the story was taking place, so I chose to picture Annapolis Valley and Cherryfield as the sites.

Throughout the book, the names mentioned were first names only. I picked the surname "Blue" for the Maine family and "Pickers" for the Mi’kmaq family.

Our book club will discuss on Mar 3. Can't wait!!

5 stars ...more

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Jul 10, 2024 Flo rated it really liked it

Shelves: 4-star, literary-fiction

Oof this book made me cry so I definitely had some strong feelings about it. This is a novel that really focuses on family, generational trauma, racism, and the way that trauma and grief can live in and destroy our bodies years after the original event. It took me a little bit to get into this book, but once I did, I couldn't put it down. I really enjoyed the intertwining stories weaving Joe and Norma/Ruthie together and how the one event of Norma/Ruthie being kidnapped set their lives on a comp Oof this book made me cry so I definitely had some strong feelings about it. This is a novel that really focuses on family, generational trauma, racism, and the way that trauma and grief can live in and destroy our bodies years after the original event. It took me a little bit to get into this book, but once I did, I couldn't put it down. I really enjoyed the intertwining stories weaving Joe and Norma/Ruthie together and how the one event of Norma/Ruthie being kidnapped set their lives on a completely different course.

While Joe was not the best person, I loved him as a character. He was so flawed, and the initial trauma of losing his sister while she was under his care (and then later losing his older brother) clearly lived with him for the rest of his life. This was really clearly juxtaposed against Norma/Ruthie's internalizing guilt vs. Joe's externalizing anger that they both suffered throughout their life. I wanted Joe to figure his shit out while understanding, like his mom did, that he was lost and just needed time to find himself, and that keeping him around the people who likely was a constant reminder of the tragedies that had happened would not do him any good. His trauma and anger literally ate at him until he died, manifesting into cancer that eventually killed him, and I wonder how much would have been different if Ruthie had never been kidnapped.

I was also fascinated by the family who kidnapped/adopted Norma/Ruthie. On one had, she probably did have a better life in regards to education, opportunities, money, etc. I don't think that can be denied. But on the other hand, she clearly did not have a better life emotionally (and also it's obviously illegal to kidnap children!). Her adoptive parents spent their whole lives worrying that she or someone else would found out what they did, and on top of that, Ruthie lived with the ghosts of the children her mother wasn't able to have. It wasn't fair for them to put all of that on her. She often mentioned how emotions were muted in her home, and having that comparison to all the emotions that were demonstrated once Ruthie reunites with her birth family was stark and really highlighted the emotional damage that was done.

There's also obviously the parallel with white people trying to make Indians less Indian, only in this case, it was on a smaller scale. While that wasn't the goal of the parents when they kidnapped Ruthie, that was what ended up happening regardless, since Ruthie grew up white and didn't even know she was Indian until she was in her 50s. And finally, I really enjoyed the character of Aunt June; she loved Ruthie and cared for her, but she was still complicit in what happened because she never said anything when she found out that her sister had kidnapped a child. She was always well meaning and generally a good person, but I wonder how much guilt she also lives with herself.

The last few chapters when Ruthie has reunited with her family definitely made me tear up a bit. There was so much love evidence in those interactions, and the fact that they all accepted Ruthie as if she had grown up with them was touching (as they should have done!) Still, that doesn't wipe away 50 years of trauma or the effect of that trauma, nor the knowledge of time and opportunities lost forever. Overall, this was a great book with such character depth and an intimate look at the effects of familial trauma and I highly recommend to anyone interested in character studies, intergeneration trauma, and race. ...more

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Jan 16, 2025 Lory Sakay rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I enjoyed this tragic book. Yes, it was tragic - the main character had so many negative life experiences and then, not surprisingly became more of a "train wreck" in adulthood. This, and the main, triggering event (which I shall not spoil), made it hard to keep reading at times but it also created a larger investment in the story for me. The back and forth chapters between the siblings helped maintain my interest and further connected me to this family. Lastly, the description of the topography ...more

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Jan 16, 2024 Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Jenn Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Schu rated it really liked it

Shelves: mysteries-of-all-kinds, historical-fiction

Amanda Peters' debut novel is about love and loss, featuring two different societal groups of different stations. The story follows the life of Norma, a young girl who dreams of a different life and family. Norma's mother is quite disturbed by her dreams and begrudgingly agrees to have her visit a psychiatrist. Norma receives a journal on these visits where she writes about her dreams. Meanwhile, we learn about another family, one that is distraught over the loss of a child in the summer while i ...more

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Oct 10, 2025 ˜”*°•.˜”*°• Sheri •°*”˜.•°*”˜ rated it really liked it

Shelves: retro-chicks-group-read

It's evident in the first 2 chapters, so I'm not giving anything away, when I say that Lenore is not a biological parent of Norma. It was sort of a bummer for me to know that so early on. Took away a bit of the mystery.

There's a lot of life situations involved in this story that can be discussed. Would be good for a book club.

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