Zeal Audiobook By Morgan Jerkins cover art

Zeal

A Novel

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Zeal

By: Morgan Jerkins
Narrated by: January LaVoy, Shayna Small
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About this listen

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.

©2025 Morgan Jerkins (P)2025 HarperCollins Publishers
African American Historical Historical Fiction World Literature Heartfelt War Mississippi
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I just couldn’t stop listening!! It is now 5am and my alarm clock has just gone off and tears are streaming down my face and my hubby is begging me to please silence the alarm clock and stop listening to my book. The flow of the narrators is perfect. As always Ms LaVoy exceeds expectations. Would recommend

Speechless

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This is a story that I wanted to read in one setting!! Very good book!

Excellent!!

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10:10 This book has you believe in love and epiphanies with relationships in life. I recommend everyone to read this book, it’s Excellent!!!

Amazing Stories!!!

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The novel was so well written that I could visually see where each scene took play. From living by the Mississippi in Natchez to the stench of Spencer evil drunk behind.

The love of Terza and Harrison lasting centuries

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The narration was superb. The book pulls at your heart strings and has you rooting for black love. It makes you think of your own roots, ancestors. This book is thought provoking and well written. This is my first book by this author, but it won’t be my last!

Emotionally Riveting

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