Harlem, 2019. Ardelia and Oliver are hosting their engagement party. As the guests get ready to leave, he hands her a love letter on a yellowing, crumbling piece of paper . . .

Natchez, 1865. Discharged from the Union Army as a free man after the wars end, Harrison returns to Mississippi to reunite with the woman he loves, Tirzah. Upon his arrival at the Freedmens Bureau, though, he catches the eye of a woman working there, whos determined to thwart his efforts to find his beloved. After tragedy strikes, Harrison resigns himself to a life with her.

Meanwhile in Louisiana, the newly free Tirzah is teaching at a freedmens school, and discovers an advertisement in the local paper looking for her. Though she knows Harrison must have placed it, and longs to find him, the risks of fleeing are too great, and Tirzah chooses the life of seeming security right in front of her.

Spanning over a hundred and fifty years, Morgan Jerkinss extraordinary novel intertwines the stories of these star-crossed lovers and their descendants. As Tirzah’s family moves across the countryduring the Great Migration, they challenge authority with devastating consequences, while of the legacy of heartbreak and loss continues on in the lives of Harrison’s progeny.

When Ardelia meets Oliver, she finds his familys history is as full of secrets and omissions as her own. Could their connection be a cosmic reconciliation satisfying the unfulfilled desires of their ancestors, or will the weight of the past, present and future tear them apart?

Sweeping, textured, and meticulously researched,Zeal is both a story of how one generations choices reverberate through the years and an indelible portrait of an enduring love.

About the Author

Morgan Jerkinsis the author ofCaul Baby,Wandering in Strange Lands,and theNew York TimesbestsellerThis Will Be My Undoing. Jerkins has taught at Columbia and Princeton Universities, and has written forThe New Yorker, theNew York Times,The Atlantic,Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair,and theGuardian, among many others. She lives in Brooklyn.

• Language : English
• Print length : 416 pages
• Item Weight : 2 lb.