320 pages
Published October 2023
Publisher’s Summary:
July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia 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.
My Thoughts:
Any time I pick up a book that features a minority or a different culture, I’m interested to learn more about the author. Is he or she writing from a place of knowledge? In this case, she is. Peters is, according to the book jacket, a writer of Mi’kmaq and settler ancestry, who was the winner of the 2021 Indigenous Voices Award, and who lives in Nova Scotia, where much of the book is set. She is, in fact, of mixed Mi’kmaq and European heritage. This book is inspired by the real-life Mi’kmaq families who pick berries. All that contributes to a higher estimation of the book for me, knowing it’s not just researched, but lived.
I pondered how I was going to write this review without giving anything away because I couldn't remember reading the summary many weeks ago. Then I copied the summary over here and realized this book isn't even a mystery to anyone who's read and remembers what it says. So bearing that in mind, it won't be a surprise that when I started reading Norma's first section of the book (the book alternates chapters between Joe and Norma) and realized that Peters was either really bad at dropping subtle clues or had no interest in keeping readers in the dark. The truth of the matter is that this is not a book that spends its entirety in search of Ruthie; instead it's a book about the damage that a traumatic event can cause on everyone involved.
For Joe's family, Ruthie's disappearance is only the first of the traumas the family will suffer. Joe suffers the most visibly, living with the unbearable weight of guilt and loss. His pain manifests as violence, ultimately causing him to commit a violent act that he can't forgive himself for. So he chooses to hit the road, to punish himself and protect those he loves. We learn what Joe's life has been like as he looks back on it as he lies dying from cancer. Norma has suffered her own pain and loss. The emotional damage her parents have suffered hangs over her for the rest of her life. She grows up certain that she wasn't born to her parents but is unable to find the truth, even from those who claim to love her.
As I neared the end of the book and struggled with what I thought might be the right way to end the book. Should Peters break our hearts? Or should Norma finally be reunited with her family? Should Joe finally find peace? Let's just leave it at this - I was happy with the way the book ended. If you recall I like a book that doesn't have a happily-ever-after ending. But then, too, some books need one. You'll just have to read this one for yourself to find out.
One last note: this book will make for a great book club discussion, touching as it does on so many themes.
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