Zeal by Morgan Jerkins

Zeal by Morgan Jerkins is a beautifully crafted historical fiction novel perfect for folks who loved the film Sinners and/or want to understand how our past as Black Americans affects our lives in the present.

At its core, this is a multi-generation story about love. We have Ardelia and Oliver who just got engaged in 2019 but struggle to hold onto one another as the stress of wedding planning AND Oliver's work at the hospital becomes overwhelming. We also follow the lives of Tirzah and Harrison, a couple separated by the Civil War and subsequent white violence, who's unfulfilled life-long yearning (or zeal, lol) for one another casts a shadow over their descendent's lives for generations.

As I listened to the audiobook, I couldn't help but marvel at Jerkins's clear-eyed approach to telling these stories as well as her dedication to in-depth research! It made me want to look up places like Nicodemus, Kansas and learn more about Black American migration. I hope it does the same for everyone who reads Zeal!

This is the first novel I've read that depicts life during the coronavirus outbreak in the United States and I feel like Jerkins did a fantastic job of capturing how terrifying an traumatizing those first two years of the pandemic were. Some authors have chosen not to include it in their works for various reasons that I totally understand but as much as Zeal is about love, it's also about healing wounds. As some know, we cannot heal a wound without inspecting it to prevent further infection.

I hope more people read this novel and take care while doing so. Morgan Jerkins deserves her flowers!