Zeal

Family histories are beautifully and deftly woven together in this new novel by literary talent Morgan Jerkins.

This New York Times bestselling author mesmerized me with her creative prowess and folkloric power in Caul Baby, and she delivers the same caliber of storytelling in her new work, Zeal.

‍We enter Ardelia and Oliver's story at their engagement party in Harlem in 2019. Both families are gathered as Oliver, a young doctor, gifts Ardelia, an associate curator at the Schomburg Center for Black Culture, a family heirloom handed down through generations of women in his lineage.

In the following chapter, we're whisked back to Natchez, Mississippi, in 1865, where Harrison, a newly freed Union soldier, is searching for the love of his life, Tirzah, in the wreckage of a crumbling South.

Over 150 years are traversed as lovers through generations chase, reconnect, and pass down histories as rich as the soil from which they came. I was hooked from the start and desperate to see how these characters fit together. This book is epic and unforgettable.