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

loved it!

In the same vein as Where the Crawdads Sing!! Very good narrations, just loved it!

Oh My Word!

I honestly cannot describe how amazing this book! The narrators did a phenomenal job with their southern accents!

WOO! This book has unusual depth

At first I thought I wouldn't finish this book or even get to the second chapter. I couldn't relate to the character of Gertrude and the horrors of her life. But the beautiful writing kept me going. The main thing about this book is not character, plot, or even style. It has a deep message about all of life: family, loyalty, love, humility. This message is buried in a sad and often gruesome tale and characters who are wise beyond what one would expect from their limited lives. It's like a microcosm of all of life, packed into an odd story and expressed by odd characters. It's worth the journey. I will definitely read it a second time.

Gripping and unforgettable

I loved this story. The author does a wonderful job creating memorable characters who are all so different but each who the reader wants to know more about. Their stories are intertwined but it isn’t until halfway through that their experiences begin to cause the reader to question where the rest of the book will take you. The narration is fantastic. I loved every part of the book; these women will stay with the reader long after the end of the story.

So much more than I expected!

I am really particular about narrators, especially when an accent is involved. The subtleties of southern class differentiations in speech were well captured in a compelling story that intertwines the strength and struggles of three very different women. We have a lot to learn from them.