Call Your Daughter Home

By: Deb Spera

Narrated by: Robin Miles, Adenrele Ojo, Brittany Pressley

Featured on Oprah’s Summer Reading List

For readers of Delia Owens’ Where the Crawdads Sing and Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees, this extraordinary historical debut novel follows three fierce Southern women in an unforgettable story of motherhood and womanhood.

It’s 1924 in Branchville, South Carolina and three women have come to a crossroads. Gertrude, a mother of four, must make an unconscionable decision to save her daughters. Retta, a first-generation freed slave, comes to Gertrude’s aid by watching her children, despite the gossip it causes in her community. Annie, the matriarch of the influential Coles family, offers Gertrude employment at her sewing circle, while facing problems of her own at home.

These three women seemingly have nothing in common, yet as they unite to stand up to injustices that have long plagued the small town, they find strength in the bond that ties women together. Told in the pitch-perfect voices of Gertrude, Retta, and Annie, Call Your Daughter Home is an emotional, timeless story about the power of family, community, and ferocity of motherhood.

“Like Jill McCorkle and Sue Monk Kidd, Spera probes the comfort and strength women find in their own company.”
— O, The Oprah Magazine

“A mesmerizing Southern tale…Authentic, gripping, a page-turner, yet also a novel filled with language that begs to be savored.”
— Lisa Wingate, New York Times Bestselling Author of Before We Were Yours

Outstanding Performance

The story was poignant and haunting. A painful picture of women's lives--both black and white--in the first quarter of the 20th century. But it's the performance that will stay with me. Kudos to the talented narrators!

Beautifully written

I love this story and the characters are so real with plenty of depth. The writing itself is beautiful and at times it reads like poetry. I was really impressed with the writers talent and how well everything flowed.

I am not a fan of books that are made up of continuing monologues by the main characters. For this book the bulk of it was separate monologues to present the characters and there was little interaction among them. I kept waiting for these characters to come together and I would have liked that to happen sooner than it did. I would have also liked more resolution on issues before the books ending.

But the story is excellent, the characters are memorable, and the writing is beautiful.

Highly recommend!

Very well written book. I didn’t want to stop listening to it. Highly recommend this book to anyone that appreciates southern historical fiction.

thrilling story, well read

Loved it! Well read, suspense, sadness. Could easily picture all of the story. Definitely kept me wanting more.

Excellent!

I will miss the characters. Such a beautifully told story. And the narration was superb!