Call Your Daughter Home

Written by Deb Spera

Narrated by Robin Miles, Adenrele Ojo and 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

• Language: English
• Publisher: Harlequin Audio
• Release date: Jun 11, 2019
• ISBN: 9781488205552

Deb Spera

Deb Spera was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and lives in Los Angeles. She owns her own television company, One-Two Punch Productions, and has executive produced such shows as Criminal Minds and Army Wives. Her work’s been published in Sixfold, Garden and Gun, and Yoga Journal. CALL YOUR DAUGHTER HOME is her first novel.

Reviews for Call Your Daughter Home

[Brandy McNew · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book just swept me away. What a story! The narration was brilliant.

[Darcia Helle · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This story stole my heart, shattered it, then gradually pieced it back together.

The content feels real and so raw that it hurts.

I’m convinced the characters were real people, and maybe they whispered their secrets to the author as she wrote. They’re the kind of complex, well developed characters that could step off the page at any moment.

Setting and atmosphere are extremely well done. I felt like I was back in the rural south, a hundred years ago, experiencing each moment as the story unfolded.

I bought the ebook more than a year ago, but I wound up listening to this on audio instead. We have a full cast of narrators who brought this story to life. Absolutely fantastic listen.

[Kyle Moore McCree · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Beautiful. The storytelling through the voices of three different women is masterfully done.

[alet · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good narrating. Enjoyable plot,strong caracters. Strong feminest viewponts brought over.

[Laurie · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fascinating historical fiction with three sincere female characters. Great narration

[Susan Remaly · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love the story of these 3 women. The narration is excellent!

[Donna Fann · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It's absolutely the best audio book I've listened to. Great story!

[Patinny75 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The characters and the intertwining of their lives and pains made me relate to each one. I couldn’t stop listening. Excellent writing and story.

[Justine Cioffi · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wow! This Audiobook was amazing! I wish this author had more audiobooks

[karterharper · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I do not know how in words I can explain how awesome this novel is. Just let me say I think it is one of my top 10 books I have read. And I have read a LOT of books. You won’t be disappointed.

[Mary Lou Smith · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fullness of the characters and the reading made it great

[Denise Killingsworth · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A good listen. Well read. I hate having to explain why I liked it.

[Adriane Guzman · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book. The characters were beautifully intertwined. Highly recommend

[Barbara · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

There was nothing about this book that I didn’t like. The story had me totally engaged and the narration was great. It’s similar to Where the Crawdads Sing but I enjoyed it more.

[Abby Howe · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent story, excellent narration. This is my second ‘reading,’ and it’s just as good!

[anita chandler may · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Interesting story

Very interesting plot I was waiting for a more dramatic punishment for the moleste especially because he was so arrogant

[Heather Smith Miller · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Beautiful. Ending had me in happy/sad tears. Great characters and story telling.

[Kinjal Kumar · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Beautiful book, beautifully narrated. You will not be disappointed. Characters are rich.

[Billie · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book and enjoyed getting to know the characters.

[Becki Basley · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Call Your Daughter Home by Deb Spera. (Scribd audiobook loan)

My reading of this book is all Scribds fault and I’ll have to thank them. They limited my choices of audiobooks at the end of the month and in frustration I randomly picked this one.

This book intersects the lives of three woman from very different backgrounds in 1924 South Carolina still recovering from the boll weevil infestation. Gertrude who will do anything to save her daughters from starvation. Retta a first generation free born slave still working for the family that once owned her family and a person who sees what others cannot. Annie matriarch of the Cole family coming to terms with a dark secret that tore her family apart. Together they help each other through painful times and find their individual salvation.

A surprisingly well written book giving you excellent atmosphere and emotion, one of the books you could lose yourself in and be startled to look up from the book and discover you aren’t really in the story setting. It is at times brutal but life is at times. I really liked how the authors writing style and story progression. I’d recommend it .

[April Russell · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Call Your Daughter Home is now my favorite read of all time. Deb Spera should turn her novel into a movie!!! Gertrude, Annie and Rhetta will live on for many years in my thoughts...

[Suzanne Ponsen · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Beautifully written and read. A fascinating blend of stories of both unspeakable reality and satisfying redemption.

[Vicki Tucker · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of the best narrations I’ve heard, and the story was better, imo, than Where the Crawdads Sing. Each woman’s story was deep, and I loved the way they intertwined. Also, a story with an appropriate and satisfying ending!

[She Statter · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great story. I love the way it reminds us women of the power and strength that we have in this world for caring for ourselves and others.

[B Cerny · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The audiobook was so well done. Each of the 3 voices reading the story gave it true life. The interaction of the characters with the social and physical environments is described so well the reader is drawn into the action on a personal level. I usually read books rather than listen, I highly recommend Call Your Daughter Home as an audiobook.

[RachelJalbert · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great Great story beginning until the end love everything about this book

[Jonna · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very good book. Narrator was fantastic! Loved the characters. The author is great at developing the characters

[Ellen Fitch · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Had a realistic plot. Nice conclusion to the story.

[Ryanne Harper · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Wow. This is just one tragedy after another. The biggest tragedy of them all, though, were those southern accents. I also had a very hard time with the use of racial slurs. I read an article that said the author wrestled with whether or not to use them, but went ahead and used them anyway. I think that makes it worse. Like, you made the conscious decision to use offensive language that adds nothing to the story. I think I’m just very over white women writing southern historical fiction set on a plantation.

[Patt Mihailoff · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I apologize because normally if I don't like a novel, I don't even bother rating it.

This novel bored me to distraction. I could not get into the characters or droning narration.

Oprah Winfrey's picks have fallen short many times for me (WHITE OLEANDER is one of them).

This was not a good listen for me.