THE BERRY PICKERS
by Amanda Peters
I had seen The Berry Pickers recommended a few times, but it hadn’t yet made it to my stack of books when my mother-in-law gave it to me for Christmas. Books are always a good bet as a gift for me, but this one was such a wonderful choice that I gave it back to her as soon as I finished it so she could read it too!
Two narrators alternate in this wonderful domestic drama full of twists and turns. Joe is a middle-aged Mi’kmaq man, bedridden and dying slowly, before his time. He reflects back on his life, beginning with the early years in which his family traveled from Nova Scotia to Maine every summer to pick berries. The summer he turns six, his four-year-old sister Ruthie goes missing from the field and he is the last to see her. From that moment, his life never again settles into a happy rhythm, and bad luck and self sabotage cause him many regrets in his deathbed reflections. Not least of which is that they never found his sister.
Norma narrates the other parts of The Berry Pickers. Raised in Maine by emotionally distant but physically controlling parents, as a child Norma dreams about a different family, a campfire and has an imaginary friend named Ruthie. Peters makes it clear almost from the first chapter that Norma is, in fact, Ruthie. And yet, the author masterfully untangles the story of her life so that I was surprised, horrified and very moved right up until the end.
In addition to writing an engrossing and often gasp-worthy plot, Peters beautifully creates, juxtaposes and combines the different worlds and personas her characters inhabit throughout their lives. I highly recommend this book as a heartfelt page-turner about family and how we create identity. (Lily)
