The Heart Seeks the Place It Most Feels at Home

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Debut novel for author Amanda Peters
2023 Barnes & Noble Discover Prize Winner 
Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction Finalist
A Sarah Selects Book Club Pick (Amazon Sarah Gelman)
Named a Best Book of the Year by Amazon, Apple, People, Barnes & Noble, Harper's Bazaar, Good Housekeeping, CrimeReads, Booklist, Debutiful, and more.

In the Berry Pickers, Amanda Peters’ debut novel,  there is a spareness in the prose like you find with Louise Erdrich. All the rhythm and story comes from the motion of the characters and the cadence of their voices reverberating off hillsides, swallowed in the vast expanse of prairies, rivers, and forests, or amongst those gathered together before the warmth of a fire under a sky full of twinkling stars. It is a beautiful book about love, family, generations, the seasonal nature of farm work, the persistence of memory, self sufficiency, a crime, recognizing beauty in the world wherever you find it, how the heart seeks the place it most feels at home, and sometimes it’s one you create for yourself. You may feel a bit like crying sad tears at the end for your own family members no longer with you, but also grateful happy tears for those you had in your life who loved you, and for those who love you still. 

Amanda Peter describes a later in life reunion: “The room was too small for all the people in it. It smelled slightly of mould, the kind that comes with old houses, houses that hold happiness and grief in the walls. Houses where laughter has been absorbed into the cracks in the plaster and tears have washed the floors many times over. This one housed a family whose stories—the memories I had been denied—were captured in its scents. The bedroom had birthed the dreams of my brothers and banished their nightmares. I looked over to see a tiny man, his eyes dark and sunken, his skin loose and yellowed by jaundice. And as I looked at him, so small and ill, his eyes, milky with medication and exhaustion, tried to focus on me. Then he began to cry. ‘Hello, Joe.’” Author Peters later adds, “When we got back into the car, the boys had calmed down, but after one look from Joe to Ben, it started all over again. We sat in that car and laughed so long that we forgot exactly what we were laughing at. It wasn’t until Joe began to cough that we were able to settle down. ‘Thank you,’ I said. “For what?’ Mae looked over at me. ‘I don’t think I have ever laughed that hard in my life.’”

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