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The Birthing Tree
  • Published: 1 September 2026
  • ISBN: 9781405994255
  • Imprint: Penguin Audio
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Narrator: Julia Davis
  • RRP: $32.00

The Birthing Tree

Formats & editions
Tr. Paperback
1 Sept 2026
EBook
1 Sept 2026
Audiobook
1 Sept 2026
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The powerful, intensely moving second novel from the author of The Berry Pickers

As I stood under it, looking up into the branches, listening as the wind rustled the leaves, I could hear my Kiju’s voice: \"This tree holds our stories.\" And as I looked down at the dirt at the base and the two strong roots that protruded from the ground where women had placed their bodies for hundreds of years before these town people were even on this land, I swear the tree spoke to me in the voices of every woman who ever laid under it, whoever welcomed their next generation, one who passed out of this world at the same time she gave life to this world.

Aliet is seventeen and has been raised by her wise, loving grandmother, her Kiju. Near their home, in the village where their Indigenous community has lived for generations, is a tree, with roots pushing out of the hard earth before retreating underground, providing a cradle for women to lean into. This is the birthing tree, where women of this community have always come to deliver their babies. It is the place where Aliet was born. But it is also the place where her mother died, gently held by the tree’s roots as Aliet came into the world.

Times are changing, and although Kiju has a wealth of Indigenous knowledge and experience to share, local women are increasingly reluctant to follow their community’s traditional birthing rituals. At the local hospital, white doctors are sceptical of Indigenous practices, and Aliet and Kiju are distraught to witness their dismissiveness turn to action, resulting in their traditions being outlawed - even for women who are determined to choose for themselves.

Twenty-three years later, Aliet is living in the city, leading a quiet, unremarkable life while she grapples with a personal tragedy, the trauma of which has shaped her adulthood. She works as a nurse, administering the medicine which replaced Indigenous wisdom while still holding her grandmother’s herbal recipes and wonderful stories dear. But when Kiju passes away suddenly, grief-stricken Aliet understands that she must return to the place where she was raised: it is only these roots that can help her reconnect with her grandmother, and herself.
  • Published: 1 September 2026
  • ISBN: 9781405994255
  • Imprint: Penguin Audio
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Narrator: Julia Davis
  • RRP: $32.00
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About the author

Amanda Peters

AMANDA PETERS is a writer of Mi’kmaq and settler ancestry. A graduate of the Master of Fine Arts Program at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, she has a Certificate in Creative Writing from the University of Toronto. She is the winner of the 2021 Indigenous Voices Award for Unpublished Prose and a participant in the 2021 Writers’ Trust Rising Stars program. She lives in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia. The Berry Pickers is her first novel.
AP

Also by Amanda Peters

The Berry Pickers
See all

Praise for The Birthing Tree

A tender story of self-discovery and the power of generations of women

Publishers Weekly

Grounded, glimmering, earthy yet mystical . . . The Birthing Tree will enchant readers with its resplendent portrait of heritage, tradition, and home

Literary Hub

The many fans of Amanda Peters’s breakout debut, The Berry Pickers, will want to put her sophomore novel at the top of their TBRs

BookPage

Seeking a highly regarded, award-winning writer? Then try The Birthing Tree by Amanda Peters

Library Journal

A full-circle narrative that weaves together an individual, her family, Indigenous culture, the Americas, and nature. With its translucent sentences and strong structures, this richly dimensional story will deeply affect readers

Booklist

Peters punctuates the chapters of Aliet’s narrative with brief italicized comments on her journey; by the end, their source is clear, and roots the novel even more firmly in traditional culture. Without being directly addressed, the matriarchal feminism of that culture comes through loud and clear. A quietly compelling portrait of a young woman finding her truth

Kirkus Reviews

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

Mona Susan Power, author of A Council of Dolls

The Birthing Tree is a love letter to the strength of Indigenous traditions, stories, and love in all their forms. Aliet decides to return, not only to the home to the home and land on which her grandmother raised her, but to the tree under which she and generations of babies from her community were born. A beautiful book. You’ll be thinking of that tree for a long time to come

Michelle Porter, author of A Glacier's Guide to Dying

The Birthing Tree is a gorgeous, historical work of literary fiction that explores family, legacy, and the secrets that bind us

She Does the City

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

The Buzz Magazines

The emotional responses stirred up by [Aliet], Kiju, and the supporting matriarchs had me in tears just eight pages in, and every 20 pages after that. I credit this to Peters’s earnest, immersive, scenic writing. The way she captures the waffling precociousness of young Aliet as she comes of age is particularly exceptional. . . . I hope she’ll continue to populate the world with powerful characters and too-long-overlooked stories

Quill & Quire

A quietly impactful novel of community and personal growth, The Birthing Tree adds another facet to the conversation about the history of Indigenous people in North America

BookPage