Amanda Peters – författare

'For fans of Celeste Ng and Ann Patchett, this quietly beautiful book will break, then mend, your heart' Amazon, The Best Books of 2023WINNER OF THE 2023 BARNES & NOBLE DISCOVER PRIZEWINNER OF THE 2024 ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION***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 – questions about her missing baby photos; questions about her dark skin; questions about 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.'Marvellous ... Amanda Peters is going to be the next big thing ... The Berry Pickers is a triumph' Katherena Vermette, author of The Strangers'Peters excels in writing characters for whom we can't help rooting' The New York Times'Lucid and assured' The New Yorker, Best Books of 2023

From the internationally bestselling author of The Berry Pickers: a powerful, intensely moving novel of family and legacy, following one woman as she confronts buried truths and the fragile future she alone must protectAs 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.”Born under the shadow of a tree sacred to generations of Indigenous women, Aliet has been brought up outside a small Nova Scotia town by her fierce, loving grandmother, Kiju. Her father remains a mystery no one will name, while her mother died under that very tree, gently held by its cradle of roots as Aliet came into the world.But the world beyond their community is changing, and although Kiju has a wealth of wisdom to share, local women are increasingly reluctant to follow traditional birthing rituals. At the local hospital, white doctors are sceptical of Indigenous practices, and Aliet and Kiju are distraught to witness as prejudice turns to condemnation.Decades later, Aliet is living a quiet life in the city while she grapples with a personal tragedy that has shaped her adulthood. She works as a nurse, administering modern medicine while still holding her grandmother’s teachings and stories dear, tucked beside memories of the tree that once welcomed new life. But when Kiju passes away suddenly, grief-stricken Aliet understands that she must return to the tree: it is only these roots that can help her reconnect with her heritage, and discover long-buried secrets about herself.Sweeping and intimate, spanning decades, The Birthing Tree follows one woman’s journey to protect her land, her traditions, and the memory of the women who came before her, as she decides which parts of her inheritance she will carry into the future.