The Berry Pickers

The Berry Pickers

2023 • 321 pages

Ratings20

Average rating4.1

15

From Amazon:

A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a tragic mystery that haunts the survivors, unravels a family, and remains unsolved for nearly fifty years

July 1962. Following in the tradition of Indigenous workers from Nova Scotia, a Mi’kmaq family arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, vanishes. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother, Joe, sitting on a favorite rock at the edge of a berry field. Joe will remain distraught by his sister’s disappearance for years to come.

In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, her mother frustratingly overprotective.

Norma is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem more like memories than imagination. As she grows older, Norma slowly comes to realize there is something her parents aren’t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she will spend decades trying to uncover this family secret.

For fans of The Vanishing Half and Woman of Light, this showstopping debut by a vibrant new voice in fiction is a riveting novel about the search for truth, the shadow of trauma, and the persistence of love across time.

Become a Librarian

Reviews

Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

It's so sad the life Naomi had to lead hidden away from the world when she was young. Finally when the truth comes out and she finds out she's been lied to for all those years! I was hoping Ben would catch up to her at the protest!

May 3, 2024
October 25, 2023
emma
Emma GotoSupporter

A story about a girl kidnapped from her Native American family and raised by white parents, as well as the anguish of her family she leaves behind.

It's a pretty compelling plot line although I didn't find myself super awed after finishing it, hence the 4 stars.

November 20, 2023