Gertrude is a poor, white woman with an abusive husband, four daughters, and no money. Annie is wife of a powerful man who has lost everything but quickly switches from growing cotton to tobacco on his plantation that still has empty slave cabins on the property. The book is written in the first person by three women: Magnificently written by Deb Spera, this novel takes place in and near the swamps of South Carolina in the 1920s just after a boll weevil infestation destroyed the cotton crops and the livelihoods of countless people rich and poor. This is a story that will stay with me for a long time. But most of all, this is a story about our shared humanity.

This is a story about the indelible bond and incredible courage of women. Told in the pitch-perfect voices of Gertrude, Retta and Annie, Call Your Daughter Home is an audacious, timeless story about the power of family, deep-buried secrets and the ferocity of motherhood.Įmotionally Searing and Difficult to Read, but It’s One of the Best Books I’ve Read These three women seemingly have nothing in common, yet as they unite to stand up to the terrible injustices that have long plagued the small town, they find strength in the bond that ties women together. Annie is the matriarch of the Coles family and must come to terms with the terrible truth that has ripped her family apart. Retta is navigating a harsh world as a first-generation freed slave, still employed by the Coles, influential plantation proprietors who once owned her family. Gertrude, a mother of four, must make an unconscionable decision to save her daughters from starvation or die at the hands of an abusive husband.

It's 1924 South Carolina and the region is still recovering from the infamous boll weevil infestation that devastated the land and the economy. A stunning tour de force following three fierce, unforgettable Southern women in the years leading up to the Great Depression.

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