Book Review: ‘Zeal: A Novel’ By Morgan Jerkins

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The book is in stores on Tuesday, April 22nd from Harper. Click on the link to buy a copy. https://amzn.to/3R77H7C

The year is 2019, in Harlem, pre covid, and Ardelia and Oliver are having their engagement party and he hands her a family treasure. It’s a love letter from Tirzah, a slave in Mississippi, to her love, Harrison, who is fighting in the Civil War, which he never got. She is long gone once the war has ended and slaves are freed and he searches for her, with help from the Freedmen’s Bureau. Turns out she’s living in Louisana and is a school teacher and sees an ad in the paper that he is looking for her. She wants to go to him, but things get in the way, and she ends up married to another man and has a son. Harrison has also gotten married and has a daughter. The story follows their lives and those of their children, which end up intersecting with the lives of Ardelia and Oliver in a big way in 2021, as covid is in full force in New York and around the world. This is a great, sweeping novel of love, loss and family and it’s one of those books you do not want to put down. This is one of the best books of the year so far and I would love to see this as a movie or TV series on one of the streaming services.