Audiobook Review ~ Call Your Daughter Home by Deb Spera

Publisher’s Description

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. 

Details

• Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
• Title: Call Your Daughter Home
• Author: Deb Spera
• Narrators: Robin Miles, Adenrele Ojo, Brittany Pressley
• Genre:  Historical Fiction, Women’s Fiction
• Length: 11 hours and 7 minutes
• Publisher:  Harlequin Audio
• Release Date: July 2019
• Excerpt:
• Audio Excerpt

Listening to this audiobook was mesmerizing. The surroundings and characters were so easy to imagine that I felt transported to South Carolina in the 1920s. And I hate to admit it, but drawing to the end of this book left me sad. Characters I’d grown to love had disappeared as though a magician had waved his wand over them. I was lost. After 11 hours of listening, the voices had easily become images of my imagination. Yes, all books do that to some degree. But Call Your Daughter Home is one of those books that won’t be forgotten for some time.

And then when I discovered that this was Deb Spera’s debut novel, I was really impressed. The language and background felt well researched and right on. The story easily conveyed what life was like in the 1920s.

Spera brings us three very unique, unforgettable women. And I don’t say those words lightly, these are women who will stick with you due to their hardships and determination. The three points of view most likely depict many women of that time. But in this case, three very different woman’s stories are gently woven together.

Gertrude is a battered wife with four young girls. They are struggling to find enough to eat and living in filth.

Annie is quite noted in the community. Her husband has dealt in cotton and now tobacco. He is also dealing in secrets. They have five children: two daughters are grown and estranged from both parents, one son committed suicide, one son has a stammer and is considered less than manly by his father, and the other son comes far closer to pleasing the father and is due to inherit all. Though the family looks fine on the outside, problems brew from within.

Retta is the daughter of a slave who worked for Annie. She also is a first-generation free slave. Because of her history with the family, she is treated with a little more respect, and in many small ways is part of the family. Behind closed doors, I’d say she is one of Annie’s closest friends. In fact, Retta is a friend to most. And though I loved all of the characters, Retta was my lady. I loved her and it pained me to lose her at the completion of the story.

Each character demonstrated the ability to find strength in times of hardship. You’re apt to find yourself silently cheering them on as they endeavor to overcome.

I can’t stress enough that this is a little community that you will come to love. But what I haven’t mentioned is that the narrators do a beautiful job of helping to make this community come to life.

In my case, since this is character-driven, the audiobook’s narrators won me over. Would I have felt as good about reading the book? I’d like to say yes. The story is incredibly good. But I’m not sure that would be correct. Three marvelous narrators brought well-written dialog to life.

This is a story of three strong women from rural South Carolina in the 1920s. Each woman in her own way will pull and tug at your heartstrings. I can’t recommend this audiobook enough.

Deb Spera has created an unusually well-written, captivating, story. Narrators Robin Miles, Adenrele Ojo, and Brittany Pressley, take this wonderful story to the top. I give it an easy thumbs-up.

Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 5 out of 5.

This team effort of author and narrators soared to the top!

About the Author

Born and raised in Kentucky, she now resides in Los Angeles where she owns her own television company, One-Two Punch Productions. She has executive produced Criminal Minds, Army Wives and Reaper.

Deborah Spera is a two-time nominee and finalist for the Kirkwood literary prize as well as The Montana Prize in Fiction. She has been published in Garden and Gun, Sixfold, The Wascana Review, Pennsylvania English and L.A. Yoga Journal. She’s the co-author of a play produced by Actors Theater Of Louisville, and has held residency at Hedgebrook, a writer’s retreat for women.

About the Narrators

Robin Miles (from Audible)

She’s been the voice of such powerful pieces as Hidden Figures, the basis for the hit movie, and Roxanne Gay’s An Untamed State.

Miles, who’d been acting on and off Broadway and on TV, got her start in audio by working with the American Foundation for the Blind, where she recorded fiction, nonfiction, and poetry—after getting rejected at first and tweaking her style to suit. She’s had several Audie nominations since, winning as part of large cast recordings such as In the Embers, which won Best Audio Drama for 2017, and for her direction of Roots in 2007. She’s been drawn to women’s stories, often those of women of color and often ones with emotional and devastating themes, which she says can often affect her during the process.

Early on in her career, Miles recorded her first horror title, The Good House by Tananarive Due. That experience, with relatable characters and accessible accents, made her realize that she was a perfect fit for horror, sci-fi, and fantasy. Of her time working on the audio, Miles says, That book won me many fans and was a springboard to titles by astounding Caribbean futurists Nalo Hopkinson (Midnight Robber), Karen Lord (The Best of All Possible Worlds), and Tobias Buckell (the Xenowealth series), speculative fiction & fantasy writers that bring exciting modern elements to classic world building.

Adenrele Ojo (from Adenrele Ojo’s website)

Adenrele Ojo is a native Philadelphian who currently resides in Los Angeles by way of New York. She is a wearer of many creative hats: actress, voice-over artist, producer and photographer.  Adenrele is a theater baby (daughter of the late Founder of The New Freedom Theatre in Philadelphia, John E. Allen Jr.) who received her BA in Theater from Hunter College in NY and later further her training at the William Esper Studio studying Meisner under the auspices of Maggie Flanigan. 

No stranger to the stage, a few of her Theater credits include:  August Wilson’s Jitney (NJPAC); Bronzeville (Robey Theatre Co.); Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (nominated for an L.A. Stage Alliance Ovation Award for Featured Actress) and The Ballad of Emmett Till by Ifa Bayeza, directed by Shirley Jo Finney (winner of the 2010 L.A. Stage Alliance Ovation Award & the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for Best Ensemble).  Adenrele moves from stage to screen in such feature films as: Within; Family, Elevate and Bathroom Vanities, a don’t-judge-a-book-by-it’s-cover comedy about one woman’s unforgettable experience in a ladies’ bathroom, directed by Christopher Scott Cherot (Hav Plenty and G), which Adenrele starred, co-wrote and produced under the umbrella of her production company, NeW•YiLLy Entertainment. 

Ojo’s voice can also be heard on many audiobooks, which she has been recording for over 10 years.  She is the recipient of two Audie Awards and has received several AudioFile Earphones Awards.  Some of her works include:  Katie Couric’s, The Best Advice I Ever Got, Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill, The Mothers by Brit Bennett (AudioFile Best of 2016 Fiction), Weapons of Mass Seduction by Lori Bryant-Woolridge, Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 pick, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis, The Healing by Jonathan Odell, Unforgivable Love by Sophfronia Scott and Billions and Billions by Carl Sagan.  When she is not recording, you can sometimes find her directing authors, celebrity actors and other audiobook narrators.

Brittany Pressley

BRITTANY PRESSLEY is an AudioFile magazine Earphones Award–winning narrator. She is also an accomplished singer-songwriter and voice actress. Her voice can be heard on national and international TV and radio commercials, as well as in several animated series and video games.