Call Your Daughter Home, by Deb Spera, may be the best book I have read this year. The story is told by three different narrators--a poor, white woman; a poor, black woman; and a rich, white woman--all who live in the same rural Southern community in the 1920's. From the very first heart stopping scene in the swamp through the unexpected plot twist to the bittersweet ending this novel will hold you in its grip as it swings from one tragedy to another, that's the way life was for many in this time and place. The three narrators stories overlap and intertwine as each of these strong, independent women do what they have to do to survive the hand they were dealt.

The major theme explored by Spera is the strength of a mother's love. She has done her research into the lives of the newly freed slaves and the class system which survives, to this day, in most of the Southern United States. Spera writes brilliantly and uses foreshadowing in the very best way. At the end of the story we are left wondering: Who stole Mr. Coles' pudding?

Call Your Daughter Home has also been published under the name Alligator.
I received a free copy of this ebook via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really loved this book. It tells about 3 different ladies . Annie (A rich lady ) Retta ( A old Black Maid who works for Annie ) Gertrude ( a very poor Lady. Gert has a bunch of girls aging in ages from almost adult to 6 years old.
This story was set back in the 1920's I don't want to tell too much as its a very good story that each should read for themselves . I do know it is 1 I will pass on to my friends and tell others to read as its awesome.

Please do not let the title of this book make you stroll on by. I think the chosen title is a big miss for this wonderful book. I was sucked into this book from the very beginning! I just could not set it down without continually thinking about it. Readers who enjoy historical fiction in southern settings will want to add this to their list.

This is a story about three women in the south in 1924. Annie Cole who is an elderly, stubborn mother estranged from her daughters. Retta, who works for the Coles - the family who onced owned her family. Gertrude, a mother of 4 in extreme poverty with an abusive husband. This is a story about women and all the heartache and oppression they have felt all their lives.

Over the unfolding of the pages, these women’s stories and lives converge together. It’s about how women can and do save each other - and about how they find the strength and resilience through motherhood to take care of their own.

Three women must come to an acceptance and understanding of each other to survive the dark days before the Great Depression in 1924 South Carolina. Annie is the public face of the Cole family, a plantation owner who has had to come to terms with her failing crops and is still dealing with the loss of the plantations “free labor”. Retta was never a slave, but her parents were and although she isn’t owned by the Coles, she works for them. And Gertrude, at the mercy of an abusive husband, must find a way to keep her four children fed and safe. This story drew me right in, Spera does an amazing job of bringing a South still struggling to find its way more than fifty years after the Civil War.