The Berry Pickers

The Berry Pickers (2023) is the debut novel of Canadian author Amanda Peters. Peters, who is of both Mi’kmaq and white-settler ancestry, explores the history and experiences of First Nations communities in the Nova Scotia, Canada environs. Peters holds an MFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and a certificate in creative writing from the University of Toronto. The Berry Pickers was a finalist for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and the recipient of the 2023 Barnes & Noble Discover Prize. The Berry Pickers examines the impact of assimilationist policies, the loss of traditional culture and language, the importance of family bonds, grief and guilt, and the lasting effects of generational trauma in First Nations communities.

This guide refers to the 2023 hardcover edition by Catapult.

Content Warning: The source text contains descriptions of violence, domestic violence, racism, substance use disorder, miscarriage, and outdated terminology for Indigenous and First Nations peoples.

Note: In the United States, the term Indigenous is widely used to describe all peoples who lived on American land prior to colonization. In Canada, however, “Indigenous” is an umbrella term used to describe First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples. Nations, once called tribes, such as the Mi’kmaq, who do not have Inuit or Métis ancestry, identify as First Nations. The source text uses the outdated term “Indian” to refer to First Nations peoples. This guide uses the term “First Nations” to describe the Mi’kmaq and other non-Inuit and Métis groups, and “Indigenous” when referring broadly to the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples of Canada.

Plot Summary

The novel unfolds in chapters alternately narrated by characters Joe and Norma, a stolen girl originally named Ruthie. Joe, a member of the Mi’kmaq First Nation, has terminal cancer and is taken care of by his sister Mae and his mother. He reflects on the events of his life, beginning with the disappearance of his young sister, Ruthie, from the berry fields in Maine, where the family worked during summertime. He recalls driving down from their home in Nova Scotia with his parents, sisters Mae and Ruthie, and brothers Charlie and Ben. Ruthie’s disappearance from the fields rocked his family and set off a chain of events that led, for him, to struggles with addiction and unbearable feelings of loss and guilt: He was the last to see his sister alive and cannot stop blaming himself for her disappearance.

A child, Norma, who is not initially identified as Ruthie, grows up in an unhappy household, in a small community in Maine. Her mother is anxious and overprotective, and Norma has recurring dreams of seeing people whom she knows are family members but are unrecognizable.

In Novia Scotia, Joe comes of age in a family haunted by the disappearance of Ruthie, but Joe and his mother never give up hope that she is alive and will return. Years after losing Ruthie, Joe’s brother Charlie is the victim of a fatal assault near the berry fields; the family stops going to Maine.

As Norma ages, she wonders why her skin is so much darker than her parents, along with other physical dissimilarities between herself and her family. She wonders why her parents talk so little about the past, and why she is absent from the family photographs taken before her fourth birthday. She continues to struggle with dreams of another family, often waking in tears. Her mother and her aunt June find her a therapist, but Norma overhears her mother and aunt worrying that Norma is “remembering.” Her mother continues to be overprotective, but Norma leaves for college, obtains a teaching degree, and marries. In Boston, a First Nations man calls out to her, screaming “Ruthie!” She is with June, who hurries her away, but she continues to wonder about her true parentage.

Joe, meanwhile, deteriorates. He cannot shake his guilt, self-medicates with alcohol, and his unhappiness sometimes manifests as violence. He punches his wife in the face while drunk and steals his parents’ truck, driving west. He feels unfit to be a husband and is deeply ashamed of his assault. He spends years wandering through Canada, taking odd jobs and battling sobriety.

Norma’s marriage falls apart after she loses her baby, and after she and her husband, Mark, divorce, she spends more time alone. Like Joe, she finds comfort in solitude. Her father dies suddenly, and her mother’s health soon begins to deteriorate: She loses her memory and develops dementia. When she is dying, Norma learns the truth from June: Her mother found her eating a sandwich by the side of the road and, grief-stricken from her own failed pregnancies, kidnapped and raised her. Norma is outraged that her entire family participated in this crime, stealing her right to her real parents and siblings. Although June does not condemn her sister, she agrees to help Norma locate her family. Through an old newspaper clipping that describes Charlie’s violent death and includes information about his missing sister, Ruthie, they locate Norma’s mother in Canada.

Norma sends the family a letter and includes two photographs of herself, one from childhood and one from the present. They recognize Norma as their lost Ruthie, and Norma/Ruthie travels to Nova Scotia to meet them. Joe has returned but is battling cancer. Norma/Ruthie feels at home with her real family, and together, they begin the healing process.