Zeal

<p><strong>Named a Most Anticipated Book by <em>Washington Post</em> <em> People</em> <em> Time</em></strong></p><p><strong>A beautiful tale. --Jason Reynolds #1 <em>New York Times</em> bestselling author of <em>Twenty-four Seconds from Now</em></strong></p><p><strong>The <em>New York Times</em> bestselling author of <em>This Will Be My Undoing</em> and <em>Caul Baby</em> returns with an epic multi-generational novel that illuminates the legacy of slavery and the power of romantic love.</strong></p><p>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 . . .</p><p>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. </p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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?</p><p>Sweeping textured and meticulously researched <em>Zeal</em> is both a story of how one generation's choices reverberate through the years and an indelible portrait of an enduring love.</p>