Zeal: A Sweeping Multi-Generational Epic of Love, Legacy, and Cosmic Reconciliation from Reconstruction to Harlem

ISBN: 0063234084

Author: Jerkins, Morgan

Condition: New

Named a Most Anticipated Book by Washington Post, People, TimeA beautiful tale. -Jason Reynolds, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Twenty-four Seconds from NowThe 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 paperNatchez, 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 work of African American historical fiction intertwines the stories of these star-crossed lovers and their descendants. As Tirzahs 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 Harrisons progeny.When Ardelia meets Oliver, she finds his familys history is as full of secrets and omissions as her own. In a sweeping dual timeline narrative, 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, this powerful family saga is both a story of how one generations choices reverberate through the years and an indelible portrait of an enduring love. Zeal is a must-read.