The Birthing Tree

As I stood under it, looking up into the branches, listening as the wind rustled the leaves, I could hear my Kiju’s voice: “This tree holds our stories.” And as I looked down at the dirt at the base and the two strong roots that protruded from the ground where women had placed their bodies for hundreds of years before these town people were even on this land, I swear the tree spoke to me in the voices of every woman who ever laid under it, whoever welcomed their next generation, one who passed out of this world at the same time she gave life to this world. 
 
Aliet is seventeen and has been raised by her wise, loving grandmother, her Kiju. Near their home, in the village where their Indigenous community has lived for generations, is a tree, with roots pushing out of the hard earth before retreating underground, providing a cradle for women to lean into. This is the birthing tree, where women of this community have always come to deliver their babies. It is the place where Aliet was born. But it is also the place where her mother died, gently held by the tree’s roots as Aliet came into the world. 
 
Times are changing, and although Kiju has a wealth of Indigenous knowledge and experience to share, local women are increasingly reluctant to follow their community’s traditional birthing rituals. At the local hospital, white doctors are sceptical of Indigenous practices, and Aliet and Kiju are distraught to witness their dismissiveness turn to action, resulting in their traditions being outlawed - even for women who are determined to choose for themselves. 
 
Twenty-three years later, Aliet is living in the city, leading a quiet, unremarkable life while she grapples with a personal tragedy, the trauma of which has shaped her adulthood. She works as a nurse, administering the medicine which replaced Indigenous wisdom while still holding her grandmother’s herbal recipes and wonderful stories dear. But when Kiju passes away suddenly, grief-stricken Aliet understands that she must return to the place where she was raised: it is only these roots that can help her reconnect with her grandmother, and herself.

AMANDA PETERS is a writer of Mi’kmaq and settler ancestry. A graduate of the Master of Fine Arts Program at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, she has a Certificate in Creative Writing from the University of Toronto. She is the winner of the 2021 Indigenous Voices Award for Unpublished Prose and a participant in the 2021 Writers’ Trust Rising Stars program. She lives in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia. The Berry Pickers is her first novel.

Amanda Peters

For fans of Celeste Ng and Ann Patchett, this quietly beautiful book will break, then mend, your heart

The ghosts of lost children haunt generations in this lucid and assured début

A poignant debut from a writer to watch

Enthralling ... Powerfully rendered ... A cogent and heartfelt look at the ineffable pull of family ties

Poignant ... Reads like a modern literary classic ... Moving, heartbreaking, and hopeful, The Berry Pickers is a powerful tale of haunting regret, bonds that will never be broken, and unrelenting love

Nick Medina, author of Sisters of the Lost Nation

The Berry Pickers is just like a handful of berries ... filled with so much sweet, so much sour, so much juice. Reading this book, I was only ever hungry when it ended

Morgan Talty, author of Night of the Living Rez

Peters brilliantly crafts a multi-layered tale of how one irrational act creates irrevocable harm that ripples through multiple lives ... A fluid and emotional read that is both plainly and beautifully rendered ... An amazing read from an amazing new voice

Michelle Good, author of Five Little Indians

A beautiful novel about family and about the way it makes and breaks and remakes us again ... It contains a cast of characters you will never forget. With this book, Amanda Peters establishes herself as an essential new voice

Alexander MacLeod, author of Animal Person

Peters weaves a persistent thread of hope and resilience through her remarkable debut novel

Lyrical ... You cannot help but love these characters from the first chapter, they stay with you long after the last page

Cherie Dimaline, author of The Marrow Thieves

Heartbreaking and genuine, this saga of a family dealing with the disappearance of a beloved child will resonate with readers of historical fiction, Indigenous fiction and anyone who enjoys a solidly written story

This emotional debut is a beautifully told story of identity, loss, and the power of love

Offers a deep exploration into the human spirit and the meaning of connection

An unputdownable novel of identity, forgiveness, and insistent hope

A profound study of the love, grief and betrayals of two families

inews, The best new books to read in November 2023

One family’s deepest pain. Another’s darkest secret. Who will they be when the truth comes out? 
 
On a hot day in 1960s Maine, six-year-old Joe watches his little sister Ruthie, sitting on her favourite rock at the edge of the blueberry fields, while their family, Mi’kmaq people from Nova Scotia, pick fruit. That afternoon, Ruthie vanishes without a trace. As the last person to see her, Joe will be forever haunted by grief, guilt, and the agony of imagining how his life could have been. 
 
In an affluent suburb nearby, Norma is growing up as the only child of unhappy parents. She is smart, precocious, and bursting with questions she isn’t allowed to ask – about her missing baby photos; her dark skin; the strange, vivid dreams of campfires and warm embraces that return night after night. Norma senses there are things her parents aren’t telling her, but it will take decades to unravel the secrets they have kept buried since she was a little girl. 
 
The Berry Pickers is an exquisitely moving story of unrelenting hope, unwavering love, and the power of family – even in the face of grief and betrayal.

Amanda Peters

Praise for The Berry Pickers

For fans of Celeste Ng and Ann Patchett, this quietly beautiful book will break, then mend, your heart

The ghosts of lost children haunt generations in this lucid and assured début

A poignant debut from a writer to watch

For fans of Celeste Ng and Ann Patchett, this quietly beautiful book will break, then mend, your heart

The ghosts of lost children haunt generations in this lucid and assured début

A poignant debut from a writer to watch

For fans of Celeste Ng and Ann Patchett, this quietly beautiful book will break, then mend, your heart

The ghosts of lost children haunt generations in this lucid and assured début

A poignant debut from a writer to watch

Books by Amanda Peters

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