I received a complimentary copy of this book from the Publisher Park Row through NetGalley. Its publication date is scheduled for June 11, 2019. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The book’s setting is in Shake Rag, a small black neighborhood in North Carolina, in the early 1920s before the country experienced the great Depression. “The South was plunged into a deep depression well before the crash on Wall Street in 1929. Cotton was the primary crop throughout the region before the boll weevil infestation decimated its economy from 1918 until the mid-1920s.” The impact of the boll weevil on crop triggers poverty and starvation.

Each chapter of the book is written from the perspective of one of three women. Gert Pardee is physically abused by her husband and has four daughters. Annie Coles is married to the wealthy family and had four surviving children: two daughters and two sons. Also, she had a 12-year-old son who committed suicide. Oretta “Retta” Bootles worked for Annie and came from slavery. Her daughter died at 8 years. The women rely on their faith in God to get through challenges: “…don’t dispute God’s existence. I never did stop believing, but He ain’t who He’s made out to be. I don’t much trust Him and I reckon He don’t much trust me, but we got ourselves an understanding. And that’s the best I can do.”

The story revolves around the interaction between these families. Marital and child abuse at the center of this story and the abuse impact on a family: “Sick people are like rattlesnakes. They don’t like to be pushed or prodded.” The women support each other in the tough times. The book is about change (“Children can’t see that everyday they are on this earth, they are changing. I suppose God designed it that way to spare us the fear of what change means.”). It moves quickly and tugs at the reader’s heart. I enjoyed this book and recommend it.

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.