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. If you’re looking for a well written book with strong female characters, then you must read Call Your Daughter Home by Deb Spera.A stunning tour de force following three fierce, unforgettable Southern women in the years leading up to the Great Depression

The author states that though Branchville is a real place, her characters are “complete inventions of her imagination, each an amalgamation of many women she found or knows that have endured hardship because of their circumstance or skin color.” Though there are many injustices through most of the book, justice is served at the end. She saves the lives of both Gertrude and Annie.

Oretta, in particular, relies on her strong faith to always do the right thing even if it goes against the popular thinking of the day. But the women in the story show such amazing strength. This is not an easy book to read because of the child, spousal and racial abuses that the characters have endured. It’s told through the voices of three women: Gertrude Pardee, mother to four girls under the age of 15, married to an abusive husband who drinks away any money they might use for the essentials of life Oretta Bootles, a Black woman who lives in Shake Rag, works for the wealthiest family in town and loves her husband with all her heart and Annie Coles, owner of a local garment company and wife to Edwin, an influential plantation proprietor. The story takes place in 1924 in Branchville, South Carolina, shortly after the region’s economy was decimated by a boll weevil infestation. I’m Betty Martin with 'Martin’s Must Reads' and those are the first lines to Deb Spera’s novel Call Your Daughter Home. You got to watch for the weakness, and take your shot to the back of the head. “It’s easier to kill a man than a gator, but it takes the same kind of wait.