Zeal

by Morgan Jerkins

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. Meanwhile in Louisiana, the newly free Tirzah is teaching at a freedmen's school. Though she longs to find Harrison, the risks of fleeing are too great. 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, or will the weight of the past tear them apart?"--