By Lisa Sanning

The Berry Pickers, Amanda Peters’ 2023 debut novel, is a dual first-person narrative that begins in 1962 with the disappearance of four-year-old Ruthie, the four-year-old child of an indigenous Mi'kmaq family. Ruthie traveled with her family from Nova Scotia to Maine to pick blueberries, as they did every summer. Joe, closest to Ruthie in age at six-years-old, was the last person to see Ruthie, sitting on their favorite rock, before he ran off to play by the lake. 

The family, and the other berry pickers, search for weeks for any sign of what happened to Ruthie but come up empty- handed. One lone officer comes out to the camp but does nothing except blame the family for the loss of Ruthie. The officer tells them the local police department can’t help because they’re transients, not actual citizens of Maine. This instance of blatant prejudice is one of many endured by the family throughout the story. 

We first hear from Joe as he grows up in this close family, reduced from seven members, to six, forever changed by the loss of their daughter and sister. As the last person to see her, Joe feels responsible for Ruthie’s disappearance, and his life is shaped by the heavy burden of guilt and anger he’s placed upon himself. It keeps him separated from those he loves as his buried emotions come out in ways both harmful to himself and others. One such occasion, resulting in shocking violence, causes him to flee in shame.

We then meet Norma, a young girl living with her extremely overprotective mother, who has suffered numerous miscarriages, and her father. Norma is remembering how as a child of four or five, she was plagued by dreams of a missing mother and a missing brother, despite being an only child. Nevertheless, the dreams would manifest in a great sadness and heart wrenching tears, troubling enough that her mother finally agrees to let her speak with her Aunt June’s friend Alice, who’s a therapist. 

Norma’s dreams eventually subside and fade from her memory, but questions continue to dog her through the years. Why does her skin get so dark in the summer sun, while her mother and father remain so white? Why are there no family photos of Norma before the age of five? Her parents offer up plausible explanations--an Italian great-grandfather for the darker skin and a fire that took all of the early photos of the family-- but Norma continues to harbor secret doubts.

The book unfolds in alternating chapters with Norma and Joe recounting their lives as they grow up. Joe with his burden of guilt and rage running from everyone who knows and loves him.  Norma, filled with guilt for feeling that something in her life isn’t quite right, but unable to discuss it with her parents for fear of causing her mother to take to her bed with sick headaches, some lasting days. 

The Berry Pickers was profoundly moving and haunting, sometimes gut wrenching, but punctuated by acts of family love and sacrifice. I highly recommend this book that so beautifully illustrates the ties that bind a family, even through decades of separation, voluntary or not.

Lisa Sanning is the adult services manager at Missouri River Regional Library.