All You Have to Do Is Call
“[A] powerful, thought-provoking novel… not only important and timely, but deeply humanizing.” —Good Morning America
“Remarkable.” —The Washington Post
“Powerful. Dramatic. Insightful…. It’s not only a timely novel, but storytelling at its finest – a must-read.” —NPR
An NPR Books We Love selection for 2023
A gripping and uplifting novel based on the true story of the Jane Collective and the brave women who worked in the shadows for our right to choose, from the USA Today bestselling author of The Paris Bookseller.
Chicago, early 1970s. Who does a woman call when she needs help? Jane.
The best-known secret in the city, Jane is an underground health clinic composed entirely of women helping women, empowering them to embrace their futures by offering reproductive counseling and safe, illegal abortions. Veronica, Jane’s founder, prides herself on the services she has provided to thousands of women, yet the price of others’ freedom is that she leads a double life. When she’s not at Jane, Veronica plays the role of a conventional housewife—a juggling act that becomes even more difficult during her own high-risk pregnancy.
Two more women in Veronica’s neighborhood are grappling with similar disconnects. Margaret, a young professor at the University of Chicago, secretly volunteers at Jane as she falls in love with a man whose attitude toward his ex-wife increasingly disturbs her. Patty, who’s long been content as a devoted wife and mother, has begun to sense that something essential is missing from her life. When her runaway younger sister, Eliza, shows up unexpectedly, Patty must come to terms with what it really means to love and support a sister.
In this historic moment, when the personal was nothing if not political, Veronica, Margaret, and Patty risk it all to help mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends. With an awe-inspiring story and appealing characters, All You Have to Do Is Call celebrates the power of women coming together in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.
“Remarkable.” —The Washington Post
“Powerful. Dramatic. Insightful…. It’s not only a timely novel, but storytelling at its finest – a must-read.” —NPR
An NPR Books We Love selection for 2023
A gripping and uplifting novel based on the true story of the Jane Collective and the brave women who worked in the shadows for our right to choose, from the USA Today bestselling author of The Paris Bookseller.
Chicago, early 1970s. Who does a woman call when she needs help? Jane.
The best-known secret in the city, Jane is an underground health clinic composed entirely of women helping women, empowering them to embrace their futures by offering reproductive counseling and safe, illegal abortions. Veronica, Jane’s founder, prides herself on the services she has provided to thousands of women, yet the price of others’ freedom is that she leads a double life. When she’s not at Jane, Veronica plays the role of a conventional housewife—a juggling act that becomes even more difficult during her own high-risk pregnancy.
Two more women in Veronica’s neighborhood are grappling with similar disconnects. Margaret, a young professor at the University of Chicago, secretly volunteers at Jane as she falls in love with a man whose attitude toward his ex-wife increasingly disturbs her. Patty, who’s long been content as a devoted wife and mother, has begun to sense that something essential is missing from her life. When her runaway younger sister, Eliza, shows up unexpectedly, Patty must come to terms with what it really means to love and support a sister.
In this historic moment, when the personal was nothing if not political, Veronica, Margaret, and Patty risk it all to help mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends. With an awe-inspiring story and appealing characters, All You Have to Do Is Call celebrates the power of women coming together in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.
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Community Reviews
“TODAY IS THE FIRST DAY OF THE REST OF MY LIFE…that summed up everything the Service stood for…This room was the vault of female secrets and sovereignty, with none of the shame or apologies that came from asking for what they wanted the moment they stepped outside.”
Veronica “was the leader of Jane, the city’s underground womens’ lib organization that provided safe, clean, illegal abortions to any woman who needed one…Which was the whole point of the Service–to liberate women by helping them take control of their own bodies…You took advantage of the freedom the abortion gave you, and you did something with your life. That’s…one of the core values of Jane.”
“One of the pillars of Jane is that abortion is just one part of a woman’s reproductive health, like our periods and menopause and, yes, pregnancy…Jane’s mission was not abortion but liberation, and…it was imperative that the women who came to them left the experience feeling more in control of their bodies and lives than when they arrived.”
“Abortion was a tool of liberation not just for them but for all women. ‘When one woman is more free, all women are more free’...Jane believes that a woman should feel good about her abortion. That her abortion is a tool of her liberation from the systems in place to keep all of us down. We believe that by helping individual women out of their specific situations, we are by extension helping all women.”
Veronica, Margaret, Patty, Siobhan, Phyllis–the Janes of this historical fiction novel–are based on the real life feminist group known as Jane, which was a group of women activists who provided safe, inexpensive abortions in Chicago in the early 1970s. What began as a referral service eventually became an entirely woman operated reproductive health service by women for women. “It takes a vagina to know a vagina…The ethos of this novel’s Jane [is] that women’s sovereignty over their own bodies is synonymous with liberation, and a cornerstone of the national feminist project.”
As a literary influencer, I recommend Kerri Maher’s All You Have to Do Is Call as a siren song for reproductive health, women’s rights, and historical fiction brilliance!
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