Amanda Peters The Birthing Tree review and information of the second novel by the Canadian Mi’kmaw writer. Catpult will publish the book by Amanda Peters, September 1, 2026. Here you can read information about the content of the book, the author and the publication.
Amanda Peters The Birthing Tree reviews and information
Whenever a review of the novel The Birthing Tree, written by Amanda Peters, the Mi’kmaw writer from Canada, appears in the media, we’ll highlight it on this page.
- “Sometimes the most urgent mysteries come from our ancestors, as Amanda Peters expertly demonstrates in this triumphant follow-up to her powerhouse first novel, The Berry Pickers. The Birthing Tree is a wonder of elegant prose and deep insight, honoring the lives of generations of Mi’kmaq women born beneath the tree’s arms. The death of a beloved grandmother sweeps us into a multi-generational mystery that is absorbing, fascinating, and ultimately redemptive. Peters excels at understanding the complexities of human connections–our guarded secrets and shames, our loyalties and prejudices. ‘Without our stories, we are lost.’ This author works to chart the way home.” (Mona Susan Power, author)
- “Peters explores the importance of maintaining a connection to one’s heritage, the effects of secrets and trauma that ripple down through future generations, and the impacts of grief. This one is a great fit for fans of literary fiction and stories with a strong sense of place.” (Cindy Burnett, The Buzz Magazines)
The Birthing Tree
- Author: Amanda Peters (Canada)
- Book type: Canadian novel
- Publisher: Catapult
- To be released: September 1, 2026
- Length: 304 pages
- Format: hardback / ebook
- Prize: $ 28,00 / $ 14,99
- Buying options >
Blurb of the second Amanda Peters novel
From the bestselling author of The Berry Pickers, an unforgettable novel about a woman who must confront her family’s buried truths and memories of passionate young love when her grandmother’s death leaves her as the only guide to her community’s future.
Born under the shadow of a birthing tree sacred to generations of Mi’kmaq 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. Aliet’s 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 Kiju’s 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 she’d 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 mother’s 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 woman’s journey to protect the land, the traditions, and the memory of the women who came before her—and to decide which parts of her inheritance she will carry into the future.
The Dutch translation of the novel titled Het lied van de vrouwen will be published in January 2027.
Amanda Peters is a Canadian writer of Mi’kmaq and settler ancestry. Her debut novel, The Berry Pickers, was the winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and the 2023 Barnes & Noble Discover Prize, and was a finalist for the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Amazon First Novel Award. Peters is a graduate of the master of fine arts program at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and has a certificate in creative writing from the University of Toronto. She lives and writes in the Annapolis Valley Nova Scotia where she is an Associate Professor in English and Theatre at Acadia University.
