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Zeal

A Novel

by Morgan Jerkins

Length 13 hours 21 minutes

Language English

Narrators January LaVoy & Shayna Small

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Bookseller recommendation

“As a former employee in Kabul's Green Zone, I related to this novel in ways I've never seen depicted in fiction before. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes infuriating, this book is a gem and I cannot wait to read all the books to come from this deeply original new voice.”
— Alissa • South Main Book Company

Bookseller recommendation

“A beautifully written multi-generational love story that spans the years starting with the close of the Civil War in Mississippi through the Covid lockdown in New York City. Jerkins immerses us in the lives of two families as they are pushed together and thrust apart over centuries. Jerkins continues to showcase her craft with her beautiful imagery and ability to capture the honest and raw emotions of each of her characters.”
— Christy • Quail Ridge Books

Bookseller recommendation

“Historical fiction at its very best! This dual timeline, multi-generational family saga is beautifully written and narrated and completely engrossing. ”
— Anne • Cherry Street Books

Bookseller recommendation

“One of the most perfect, sweeping, epic books I've ever had the pleasure to read.”
— Alissa • South Main Book Company

Bookseller recommendation

“Spanning six generations and over 150 years, this is a sweeping novel of family, love, and trauma. Jerkins seamlessly moves from 2020 amid the covid-19 pandemic, 1865 amid the early days of Emancipation, and the years between as two families’ stories weave in and about each other. Full of rich characters and complex, intriguing plot lines, this is a superbly engaging read. ”
— Nancy • Raven Book Store

Bookseller recommendation

“A multigenerational love story, Zeal is about generations of black Americans from the end of slavery through the present as their lives and romantic interests intersect with each other through time. And as each generation tries to understand the previous, they must learn to cope with their inherited trauma and make sense of their people's past. Jerkins' writing is riveting and I absolutely fell in love with the many complex women in this novel, especially Tirzah.”
— Will • Newtown Bookshop

Summary
About the author

Most Anticipated: Washington Post, People, Time

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 of 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.

Fiction Historical Fiction

Morgan Jerkins is the author of Caul Baby, Wandering in Strange Lands, and the New York Times bestseller This Will Be My Undoing. Jerkins has taught at Columbia and Princeton Universities, and has written for The New Yorker, the New York Times, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, and the Guardian, among many others. She lives in Brooklyn.