An original story that gets the reader engaged in the experience of Indigenous families who have endured deep loss and separation. Lots to unpack here on white privilege, mental illness and motherhood. I enjoyed this book. Characters are well developed. Left me wanting more.

The Berry Pickers, Amanda Peters, author; Aaliya Warbus, Jordan Waunch, narrators It is summertime, in 1962, and the Mi'kmaq Nation family of seven has arrived at the Ellis farm, once again, to pick blueberries. Joe and Ruthie, the youngest children, are only a couple of years apart. Joe is six years old, and he looks on as Ruthie, about 4 years old, wanders off. She had just witnessed him doing something wrong and had agreed to keep his secret. Everyone is surprised when Ruthie never returns. Joe will feel guilty about her disappearance until his dying day. As all the pickers search for her, they discover what they have always thought is true. The police have little interest in helping them, and neither does the owner of the farm, so they are on their own. There is so little sympathy and so much prejudice. They never find Ruthie or any trace of her. She is simply gone. How will that loss affect each member of the family? Will there be pent up anger, grief, isolation? After the story of Ruthie is explored, another child’s life is exposed. Norma is around the same age as Ruthie. She is an obedient and quiet child with only a small amount of curiosity. Lenore, her mother, comforts her and explains her questions about her family away when they arise. There are no family photos, and she is told they were lost in a fire. She has an imaginary friend/doll she named Ruthie. She has odd dreams. Her father is a judge devoted to her mother. She is an only child with few long-lasting friendships. She accepts them as they come and go. She is very close to her Aunt June and her cousin Alice. They are very kind to her. Although she does not look like other members of her family, as she is darker skinned, her mother tells her that she looks more like the Italian side of the family, that is all. Norma accepts the explanations that are given to her, mostly without question. Norma is devoted to her mother who is often ill with migraines and has to take to her bed. She loves her family; however, her mother is suffocating her with her helicopter parenting. Because of the many losses Lenore had experienced, she was overprotective. Norma longed to escape her home. When she is given permission to go off to college, she meets Mark. They fall in love. She looks so forward to leaving her parents and beginning her new life, but after they marry, she becomes pregnant and suffers the loss of her own child. Devastated with her own grief, the marriage falters. For so many years, she had witnessed her mother’s constant suffering from such loss, and now it torments her. She wants no more children, but Mark disagrees. Can their marriage survive? Can she overcome her grief and move on or will it haunt her? Time passes and when Lenore falls ill, Norma steps in to care for her. She discovers a long-kept secret. She had assumed she was adopted, but when her origin is explained to her by her aunt, she is aghast. Does she want revenge? Is she angry? What thoughts race through her mind? Is she forgiving when she discovers her history? What are her thoughts and feelings as she discovers what she has been given and what she has lost? How far will a parent, a child, a friend, a relative, a spouse, go to protect someone? Norma has had a life of abundance. It was a good life, but a stolen life. Was the crime justified? Is a crime ever acceptable? What about her other life? Could anything excuse what was done to her? Is one person allowed to recover from a grievous loss by causing others to suffer such a loss? How long does the pain of loss last? Does it ever go away? Why does it grow and slowly destroy some lives but fade with time for others? Is it possible for Norma to finally shed the guilt she feels for her mother’s painful headaches? She has carried the burden of that guilt for as long as she can remember. Was her mother selfish or truly in pain? This book will raise many conflicting ideas and questions for the reader. What is morally acceptable behavior? Is one family’s grief more important than another’s because they are deemed marginal? Is their suffering not as great? This book illustrates the abuses the indigenous Mi’kmaq’s were forced to endure, being ignored by law enforcement, experiencing the violence of prejudice, the inability to improve their lives significantly, and dealing with the loss of their natural way of life, traveling as the seasons changed in order to sustain themselves, but it is only highlighted, and does not really explore the subject I looked forward to learning more about. I had been visiting lands occupied by Mi’kmaqs prior to reading this book and hoped to learn more about their culture and way of life. This book, instead, is actually a story about devastating loss, its effect on all those involved, and the ways in which they all coped with the grief, frustration and confusion that followed, often for decades. Why does the anger simmer in some, cause guilt in others, and morph into positive action and deeper commitment in still others? Was prejudice the reason for the crime against the Mi’kmaq family? Was it a random act? Is the book really about the indignities of the lives of those less fortunate, those shunned by society, abused by society? One will wonder about the purpose of the author when she wrote the book. Is it simply a novel about a heinous crime or a novel with a human rights theme?

As a child Norma has had dreams that seem very real to her. Her parents insist they are only dreams, nothing more. There are no pictures of Norma in the house she grew up in before the age of 4. She is told they were all burned in a fire. Her family is very prominent and wealthy, but her mother is very overprotective. It isn’t until the end of her mother’s life, that Norma is finally able to put the pieces of her dreams together.
This is a very powerful and moving story, very similar to the TV series, Little Bird that was shown on PBS not too long ago, which was also very good.