“When we arrived from Nova Scotia, midsummer, a caravan of dark-sinned workers, laughing and singing, travelling through their overgrown and rusting world, the local folks turned their backs, our presence a testament to their failure to prosper.”
This melancholy tale has a bit of everything, from kidnapping to grief to redemption to murder to hope to rage to abuse to faith to racism. Amanda Peters uses short, staccato sentences to propel the pace, giving a great story the space it needs to overpower suspect prose.
“There is a code among the dying: let the living speak. They have longer to atone for it.”
Some readers may question the sheer number of tragic coincidences that impact a single family, and it can be difficult to determine the motivations and mindsets of certain characters. Yet "The Berry Pickers" is deeply emotional and absorbing, making it one of the rare books that makes a saccharin, tidy ending both acceptable and welcomed.
“The dash saddens me. The simplicity misses so much. It doesn’t allow for all the downs that bring a person low or the joys that lift them up. All the bends and turns that make up a lifetime are flattened and erased. The dash on a tombstone is wholly inadequate.”
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