Zeal

A Novel

By: Morgan Jerkins

Narrated by: January LaVoy, Shayna Small

Named a Most Anticipated Book by Washington Post, People, Time

“A beautiful tale.” —Jason Reynolds, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Twenty-four Seconds from Now

The New York Times bestselling author of This Will Be My Undoing and Caul Baby returns with an epic, multi-generational novel that illuminates the legacy of slavery and the power of romantic love.

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 war’s end, Harrison returns to Mississippi to reunite with the woman he loves, Tirzah. Upon his arrival at the Freedmen’s Bureau, though, he catches the eye of a woman working there, who’s 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 freedmen’s 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 Jerkins’s extraordinary novel intertwines the stories of these star-crossed lovers and their descendants. As Tirzah's family moves across the country during the Great Migration, they challenge authority with devastating consequences, while the legacy of heartbreak and loss continues on in the lives of Harrison's progeny.

When Ardelia meets Oliver, she finds his family’s 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 generation’s choices reverberate through the years and an indelible portrait of an enduring love.

Absolutely Beautiful!

This was an amazing book. Absolutely beautiful and positively gripping. I could not put it down.

Way too long!!

Great story, interesting history, and relations. It just went on way too long, pretty much all of it.

A story from the past to the present

There's aspects of this book that I really loved. I think that importance of family is the biggest theme. And I think disappointment in life circumstances is another theme. I'd like the narration. At times it was a little bit slow, but overall a really good read.

This book touched my whole soul!

I’m full of tears. This was such a beautiful generational love story.

The history, the imagery, the beauty of the story as it unfolds through generations is just amazing. The narrator’s voice is absolutely the perfect choice for this book and I could not stop listening!

Absolutely beautiful!

This is a book you’ll start and fall in love with instantly! So beautifully put together and a love story for the ages!!!