The Berry Pickers

By: Amanda Peters

Narrated by: Aaliya Warbus, Jordan Waunch

A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a tragic mystery that haunts the survivors, unravels a family, and remains unsolved for nearly fifty years

July 1962. Following in the tradition of Indigenous workers from Nova Scotia, a Mi’kmaq family 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.

For fans of The Vanishing Half and Woman of Light, this showstopping debut by a vibrant new voice in fiction is a riveting novel about the search for truth, the shadow of trauma, and the persistence of love across time.

©2023 Amanda Peters (P)2023 HarperCollinsPublishers

Absolutely Awful Narration

Aaliya Warbus’ portrayal of Norma/Ruthie does the story no justice. Her voice, pacing and mispronunciations ruined the character for me.
Longtime Listener

Great story telling

I really didn’t want this book to end. I could listen to “Joe’s” voice all day as I found it very soothing in his story telling as a young boy growing up with his family before the tragedies that changed him. Ruthie, her two lives, one always in the shadows. Definitely recommend this story!

made me cry twelve times, in a good way

overall I really enjoyed this story and found myself relating to the characters in small ways. It wasn't much of a mystery where the plot was going but the author did a great job describing grief in a myriad of ways and walked us to a satisfying ending. the narration was pretty good but not my favorite. For some reason the voices of the narrators occasionally distracted me from the story of that makes any sense?

Beautiful 😢

This was a beautiful but sad story! I won’t spill it for those who haven’t read it yet! The takeaway for me is that the decisions we make in life not only affects us but others as well, so we have to be mindful of the things we do and the way we treat people!

I had to stop listening

Wow. I saw the other review that the narrator was bad and while I didn’t like the first, I had no idea that it was the second narrator would cause me to need to turn it off entirely. Hated it that much. Disappointed because I was otherwise enjoying the story but now I wish I could get a refund.

Good story but….

I enjoyed the story overall however I wish this is one I’d have read. The narrators, particularly Norma/Ruthie was terrible. She was so distracting with her strange and sometimes incorrect pronunciations. The voices she gives to other characters are not good. Joe was breathy, almost whispering. For me, the whole narration made me want to stop listening, but I paid for it so I finished it. Will definitely be listening to the samples first from now on and avoid these narrators.

Bad narration!

Not sure if these readers were amateurs or what but the woman who read over enunciated. Both spoke too softly as well. I was cranking the audio in my car to not miss words! Overall story was good but don’t listen, read it instead.

Awesome

I really enjoyed this book. I felt so many emotions while listening. Sad and yet happy.

Excellent Storytelling and Narration

This is one of those books where the prose and lyrical descriptions simply immerse you into a captivating story. Each character is richly presented and defined - you really feel you can understand the motives and behavior of the main characters

It's a heartbreaking story of 2 families that is well worth the emotional journey

Highly recommended !!

The ability to forgive

Really well told. Very sad but very beautiful. Told by two people alternating and still managing to make you keep glued to your chair