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Amanda Peters
Amanda Peters is the author of The Berry Pickers and Waiting for the Long Night Moon. She also writes non-fiction and mystery titles including The Museum Detective and Texas Criminal Procedure and Evidence.
The Berry Pickers
Synopsis
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, 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.
Genres
Characters
Dr. JoeProtagonist
Ruthie's six-year-old brother, who is the last to see her and remains distraught by her disappearance for years.
NormaProtagonist
A young girl growing up in an affluent family in Maine, troubled by recurring dreams and a growing suspicion that her parents are hiding a secret.
RuthieProtagonist
A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl who vanishes from a blueberry field in Maine, setting off a decades-long mystery.
Frequently asked questions
Does The Berry Pickers have multiple perspectives or timelines?
The narrative unfolds through two distinct timelines and perspectives: one following Joe in the 1960s after his sister's disappearance, and another following Norma decades later as she uncovers secrets about her past. These dual threads eventually converge.
Is The Berry Pickers connected to Amanda Peters' other books?
This novel is a standalone work and does not share characters or a continuous storyline with Amanda Peters' other published titles. It explores similar themes of Indigenous identity and family secrets, but within a unique narrative.