From the bestselling author of The Berry Pickers, an unforgettable novel of family, legacy, and the secrets that bind and endanger us, following one woman as she confronts buried truths, memories of passionate young love, and the fragile future she alone must protect

Born under the shadow of a birthing tree sacred to generations of Mikmaq women, Aliet Paul grows up outside a small Nova Scotia town with her fierce, loving grandmother Kiju. Her mother died bringing Aliet into the world under that very tree; her father remains a mystery no one will name. Aliets childhood is shaped by seasonal apple pickers, the medicinal wisdom of the old ways, and the quiet, steadfast presence of John, a boy who becomes her anchor.

But the world beyond their community is changing. Traditional midwifery is condemned, prejudice deepens, and when the wrong person witnesses a birth, the consequences are disastrous. As Aliet comes of age, she navigates love, loss, and a personal tragedy that veers her from the path her grandmother wanted for her. She becomes a nurse trained in modern medicine, yet she carries Kijus teachings close, tucked beside memories of the tree that once welcomed new life.

Years later, when the call comes that Kiju has died, Aliet returns home to a crumbling house, a community scattered, and a past she thought shed outrun. As Aliet restores the house room by room, something inside her stirs awake: the threads of her lineage, the old ways of her grandmother, and the mystery of her own bloodline.

As Aliet digs to uncover who her family really is, each revelation pulls her deeper into a web of long-guarded silences, dangerous loyalties, and generational wounds that refuse to stay buried: Someone knew the truth about her mothers final moments. Someone knew what happened in the orchard all those years ago. And someone wants the past to remain undisturbed.

Spanning decades of loss and reclamation, this sweeping yet intimate novel follows one womans journey to protect the land, the traditions, and the memory of the women who came before herand to decide which parts of her inheritance she will carry into the future.

NATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR
Carnegie-Winning Author Winner of the Barnes & Noble Discover PrizeANew YorkerBest Book of the Year

From the bestselling author ofThe Berry Pickers, an unforgettable novel about a woman who must confront her familys buried truths and memories of passionate young love when her grandmothers death leaves her as the only guide to her communitys future

Born under the shadow of a birthing tree sacred to generations of Mikmaq women, Aliet Paul grows up outside a small Nova Scotia town with her fierce, loving grandmother Kiju. Her mother died bringing Aliet into the world under that very tree; her father remains a mystery no one will name. Aliets childhood is shaped by seasonal apple pickers, the medicinal wisdom of the old ways, and the quiet, steadfast presence of John, a boy who becomes her anchor.

But the world beyond their community is changing. Traditional midwifery is condemned, prejudice deepens, and when the wrong person witnesses a birth, the consequences are disastrous. As Aliet comes of age, she navigates love, loss, and a personal tragedy that veers her from the path her grandmother wanted for her. She becomes a nurse trained in modern medicine, yet she carries Kijus teachings close, tucked beside memories of the tree that once welcomed new life.

Years later, when the call comes that Kiju has died, Aliet returns home to a crumbling house, a community scattered, and a past she thought shed outrun. As Aliet restores the house room by room, something inside her stirs awake: the threads of her lineage, the old ways of her grandmother, and the mystery of her own bloodline.

As Aliet digs to uncover who her family really is, each revelation pulls her deeper into a web of long-guarded silences, dangerous loyalties, and generational wounds that refuse to stay buried: Someone knew the truth about her mothers final moments. Someone knew what happened in the orchard all those years ago. And someone wants the past to remain undisturbed.

Spanning decades of loss and reclamation, this sweeping yet intimate novel follows one womans journey to protect the land, the traditions, and the memory of the women who came before herand to decide which parts of her inheritance she will carry into the future.

AMANDA PETERSis a writer of Mikmaq and settler ancestry. She is the bestselling author ofThe Berry Pickers, which won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and the 2023 Barnes & Noble Discover Prize; the novel was also named the Best Book of the Year by Amazon,The New Yorker, andPeople Magazine, among others. She is the winner of the 2021 Indigenous Voices Award for Unpublished Prose. She lives in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia.

• Publisher: Catapult
• Publish Date: September 01, 2026
• Pages: 304
• Language: English
• Type: Hardcover
• EAN/UPC: 9781646223695
• Dimensions: 8.3 X 5.5 X 0.0 inches | 1.23 pounds
• BISAC Categories: Popular Fiction