The Berry Pickers

In July 1962, a Mi'kmaq family travels from Nova Scotia to Maine for the summer blueberry harvest. A few weeks into the season, Ruthie, the youngest child at four years old, disappears. Her six-year-old brother Joe saw her last, perched on a favorite rock at the edge of the berry field.

The book runs on two tracks. One follows Joe, who is still shaken by the loss of his sister as the years pass. The other follows Norma, a girl growing up in Maine as the only child of a well-off family. Her father keeps his distance, and her mother hovers over her in ways that wear on her.

Norma is troubled by recurring dreams and visions that feel closer to memory than imagination. As she gets older, she senses that her parents are keeping something from her, and she refuses to dismiss the feeling. Over decades, she works to find out what that secret is.

The novel is a literary mystery told from alternating points of view across many years. The tension comes from a long search and from what each character carries, with grief on one side and unanswered questions on the other.