Influenced by Peters&rsquo\; own Mi&rsquo\ ;kmaq heritage\, \;The Berry Pickers \;is a riveting exploration o f family\, grief\, and the bonds we share. \;
\nJuly 1962. A Mi& rsquo\;kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries f or the summer. Weeks later\, four-year-old Ruthie\, the family&rsquo\;s yo ungest child\, vanishes. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother\, Jo e\, sitting on a favorite rock at the edge of a berry field. Joe will rema in distraught by his sister&rsquo\;s disappearance for years to come.
\ nIn Maine\, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an a ffluent family. Her father is emotionally distant\, her mother frustrating ly 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&rsquo\;t tell ing her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition\, she will spend decades tryin g to uncover this family secret.
\nThe Berry Pickers \;is an int imate portrait of race\, love\, and loneliness&ndash\;and the power of for giveness. Register now to take part in the discussion!
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\nAbout the Author: \;Amanda Peters is a mixed-race woman of Mi&rsq uo\;kmaq and European ancestry\, born and raised in the Annapolis Valley\, Nova Scotia. Her short fiction and non-fiction have been published in&nbs p\;The Antigonish Review\, Grain Magazine\, The Alaska Quarterly Review\, The Dalhousie Review\, \;and \;Filling Station Magazine.
\nA manda&rsquo\;s first novel\, \;The Berry Pickers\, was a finalist for the Atwood Gibson Writers&rsquo\; Trust Fiction Prize in Canada\, and won the Barnes and Noble Discover Prize and the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction in the US. \;The Berry Pickers \;won the Dartmouth Book Award and the Crime Writers of Canada First Crime Novel Award\, and has b een translated into sixteen languages around the world. Her most recent bo ok of short fiction\, \;Waiting for the Long Night Moon: Stories\, was published August\, 2024\, to critical acclaim.
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