Road trips and the “threads of family”: Inside Amanda Peters’ award-winning page-turner The Berry Pickers

Much to her surprise, Amanda Peters has written a runaway bestselling novel.

A writer of Mi’kmaq and settler ancestry living in Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia, Peters has garnered widespread acclaim with her debut novel The Berry Pickers (HarperCollins Canada). It has been celebrated in literary circles, became a finalist for the Atwood-Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize,  was longlisted for the 2024 Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, was nominated for the 2024 Evergreen Award Program, and won the Barnes and Noble Discovery Prize. 

“To be honest, it’s a bit surreal,” shares Peters, reflecting on this success. “I like to call The Berry Pickers ‘the little book that could’. I’m not sure what it is about this book that people are attaching to, but I’m so pleased that they are.” When she wrote The Berry Pickers, her intention was for her parents to read it and “be proud. And hopefully my fellow Mi’kmaq would read it and see themselves in it somehow.”  Given these simple aspirations, her trip to New York City for the Barnes and Noble Discovery Prize felt “lovely but otherworldly –  and then, even more otherworldly when I won. I am so humbled and honoured that people are liking the story.”

Peters’ modesty can in no way overshadow her achievement. The Berry Pickers is resonant and profound, with characters who linger long after the story ends. It is a rare story that inspires regret that it can never again be read for the first time. (That said, when a recent bout of flu made using a device or screen intolerable, I re-read the book in a single day while bedridden, and it was a balm to my bruised psyche.) Set in 1962, the story explores the mysterious disappearance of a four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl named Ruthie. It is narrated from the dual perspectives of Ruthie’s brother Joe, who was the last person to see her before her disappearance; and Norma, an only child growing up in Maine. 

The novel intricately weaves the dual narratives of Ruthie’s family and Norma’s family, exploring the lasting impacts of loss and the enduring strength of familial bonds and connection. “I think for some, the threads of family are strong and are not easily broken, even when something or someone is missing,”’ Peters notes. “I know this isn’t true for all families, but it is for Joe and Ruthie’s family. There is a lot of love: true, genuine love for one another,” despite their grief and challenges. One theme that Peters was especially interested in exploring was the devastating impact of removing a child from their family – something Indigenous communities have experienced all too often. In this case, “the hurt reverberates in both families. One with grief and sometimes violence, and one with coldness and paranoia. But, especially in the Mi’kmaq family, they never let grief or distance destroy their faith, hope and love.”

Norma, one of the central characters, grapples with inexplicable dreams and a sense of disconnection – which “are her memories that are being repressed by the information continuously given to her by her ‘parents’,” Peters explains. Norma’s struggle ultimately is to uncover her true identity. These memories prove “that, while she was young when she was taken, there were memories that she was able to hold on to. I think it reflects that deep down she knows something is always amiss.”  Yet Norma’s main issue in the book is her continuing denial of the truth: “Maybe she does believe she’s adopted, but I think there is always an inkling that there is something more to her feelings of belonging.” 

The character of Joe, on the other hand, turns disconnection into a distorted kind of love. “He thinks he is doing what is best for the people he loves by staying away,” Peters offers. “He stays away so long that the thought of returning is incomprehensible, but he justifies it as love. He realizes too late that being with the people you love, acknowledging the wrong you’ve done, and accepting their love is true healing.”

While Peters loves all of her characters despite their obvious flaws, she feels a special kinship with Norma: “I may have accidently put a bit of myself into her character. As a mixed-race woman, I have often struggled with where I belong and how I fit into the world. And Norma does, too, although she can’t figure out why she feels this way – and I have always known.” After a pause, she offers, “I also love Mae. Her big awkward love for her family is so endearing.” 

Readers might be surprised to learn that for Peters, The Berry Pickers was for a long time “the book that I didn’t want to write”. She freely tells people that the inspiration for the novel was the family’s history of berry picking in 1960s and 70s Maine, which her father shared with her. But he had long suggested that she write about it, and she was hesitant until they took a road trip together to Maine. “He told me all the stories and how they used to work in the field, and while I was there, the inspiration struck,” she explains. In fact, she explains, she recently “travelled to Maine to do a reading in Portland, and my Dad came with me, and we retraced that trip from 2017. It was a lovely experience.”  

Peters’ personal connection to the story’s setting adds a layer of authenticity that helps to explain the story’s resonance. Another contributor was the difficult but authentically handled subject matter of The Berry Pickers. It meant that writing certain scenes was emotionally taxing. “But humans are difficult and complex, good and bad,” Peters notes. And she credits her supportive family and friends for helping her maintain an emotional equilibrium during the writing process. “I can tap into my own complexity sometimes, but I think that having an amazing family and wonderful friends – and knowing that they are there for me all the time, unlike my characters – helps.” She also made a point of not working with the difficult parts for too long at a time. Instead, she opted for breaks – “sometimes for days, sometimes for months” – “to allow the hurt to be real on the page, but not impact me as a person”.

So how have the acclaim and success of The Berry Pickers affected her writing life?  The biggest impact has been “lots of interview requests and some speaking requests”. To date, Peters has been invited to over 16 literary festivals and events, including Toronto International Festival of Authors, Word On the Street Toronto, and Eden Mills Writers Fest. On December 14, she will be at the Niagara Parks Coast to Coast “Canada’s Family Women” Literary Series in Queenston, Ontario. With her job as Associate Professor of English at Acadia University, her current schedule would seem not to leave much time to work on a new project. But readers will be happy to learn that she is nonetheless working with her editor on a short story collection called Waiting for the Long Night Moon – which is already set for release next summer. She looks forward to finding “a little calm, hopefully next summer “ after that launch. But not to recuperate – it’s “so I can take the time to sit down and work on something new”.

The traction of The Berry Pickers with readers is a testament to Peters’ skillful storytelling and her profound understanding of the complexities of human emotions and relationships. This stunning debut prompts a yearning to read more from Peters . . .  and happily, next summer will soon be here.

© Arpita Ghosal, Sesayarts Magazine, 2023