"Few readers of audiobooks can match Frederick Davidson's remarkable skill.he's equal
to the task, rendering this complex, yet worthwhile, novel accessible to all listeners."--AudioFile

With flawless construction and impeccable detail, Zola chronicles the conflicts, lusts, and deprivation of life
in the coal fields of nineteenth-century France. A father and three of seven children work brutal hours, facing
hazards such as landslides, fire, and poisoned air, to scrape together enough money for food. When their
lodger, tienne, shares ideas of a workers' revolt, the family gradually embraces his plans. Soon the
settlement is aflame with resolve to strike for better wages and working conditions. Savage and horrifying
events ensue as miners clash with management and with each other.

Published in 1885, Germinal helped establish Emile Zola--an artist of unsparing candor--as the leading
figure in the French school of naturalistic fiction. Andr Gide chose this masterpiece as one of the ten best
novels in the French language.