Deb Spera

Deb Spera is a novelist and television producer whose fiction brings historical pressure into intimate family decisions. Call Your Daughter Home, her debut novel, is set in South Carolina in 1924 and follows three mothers whose lives cross despite sharp differences in race, class, and security. Gertrude struggles to protect four daughters from poverty and violence; Retta, born into the first generation after slavery, offers practical care; and Annie runs a sewing business while confronting secrets within her own household. Park Row Books released it in 2019. Its alternating viewpoints turn motherhood into both a source of vulnerability and a form of collective power, while the Lowcountry setting holds the legacies of exploitation close to everyday labor. Robin Miles, Adenrele Ojo, and Brittany Pressley perform the Harlequin Audio edition, giving each woman a distinct voice. Spera builds the story through work, weather, and difficult bargains rather than treating solidarity as automatic.