The Berry Pickers

Content Warning: The source text contains descriptions of violence, domestic violence, racism, substance use disorder, miscarriage, and outdated terminology for Indigenous and First Nations peoples.

Joe is one of the novel’s two narrators. When readers first encounter Joe, he is 56 years old and dying of cancer. His sister Mae and his mother are caring for him. Although he is facing the end of his life, Joe is contemplative. Joe was the last person to see his sister Ruthie before her disappearance, and he bore witness to his brother Charlie’s brutal death. He spent the bulk of his lifetime blaming himself for both tragedies, and as the narrative begins, Joe is grateful to be home and to have finally conquered some of his demons.

Guilt is one of Joe’s defining characteristics. He took on the burden of responsibility for Ruthie going missing, and his sense of guilt only deepens a few years later when he runs to get help instead of defending his brother Charlie in an altercation that led to his death. Already troubled and prone to self-medication with alcohol by the time Joe married, he assaulted his wife after a bout of heavy drinking, and left town before finding out that he had a daughter.