Émile Zola’s Germinal is irresistible. Often considered Zola's masterpiece and one of the most significant novels in the French tradition, the novel – an uncompromisingly harsh story of a coalminers' strike in northern France in the 1860s – has been published and translated in over one hundred countries and has additionally inspired numerous film adaptations and television productions.

A beautiful but bone-chilling story, Germinal was a huge commercial success and helped establish Zola's fame and reputation throughout France and the world.

ÉMILE ZOLA (1840 –1902) was a French writer, a major figure of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of the modern novel. Zola was nominated for both the first and second Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901 and 1902.