by Cathryn Conroy (Gaithersburg, Maryland): It is July 1962. Joe is six years old. Ruthie is four. They are the part of the Mi’kmaq tribe and live in Nova Scotia, Canada. Every summer, the family—mom, dad, and the five kids—come to Maine to work as blueberry pickers. But this summer is different. This summer Ruthie disappears…and Joe is the last one to see her.

This emotionally searing book by Amanda Peters follows Joe and Ruthie through a lifetime of guilt and confusion, of fleeting memories and unforgiving thoughts of what could have been vs. what is. Ruthie was snatched by an affluent woman desperate for a child, but Ruthie’s family has no idea what happened to the little girl. They fear someone killed her, and so they keep looking for her dead body not only that summer, but also in the years to come. They never find any clues, and the local police refuse to get involved because they are itinerant Indians.

The story is told in alternating chapters between Joe and Ruthie, who is renamed Norma by her new family. Joe’s perspective is that of an adult man who is dying of cancer, as he recalls the past, specifically what happened that awful summer and the effect it had on his life and the lives of his three siblings and parents. Meanwhile, Norma’s story is told in chronological order, progressing as the years go by as she grows up with parents who look nothing like her and a mother who keeps a tight rein on her all the time. Eventually, Norma realizes her parents have big secrets they aren’t telling her…secrets she is determined to uncover.

Considering the storyline, one would think this book would be all about the plot. Interestingly, it’s not. The plotline is actually somewhat weak. Instead, this novel is built on character development. It is all about Joe and Norma/Ruthie, a chilling psychological study of two lives that were forever changed in a heartbeat.

It is a story of trauma, grief, anger, memory, and truth. It is a story of a love that never ends.

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