Germinal

Zola's novel paints a chilling image of poverty and desperation in a small mining town in Northern France in the 1880s. Narrator Leighton Pugh has a serious tone that lends itself to the story's somber mood. tienne, a despairing outcast, takes a job in a coal mine to avoid starvation. Influenced by his rising socialist views, he plants the seed within the miners to strike in response to unfair wages and poor living conditions. Skillful in his vocal characterizations, Pugh captures the well-intended miner Maheu with a soft-spoken, raspy voice and the leader tienne with a sense of earnestness that characterizes his passionate resistance. Pugh's reading echoes the anxiety that permeates the novel, and he delivers an absorbing performance. D.M.W. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

This sometimes depressing novel about late-nineteenth-century labor problems in France focuses on the coal mine--a life of dangerous work, starvation wages, impoverished futures. A newcomer to the labor force attempts improvement through worker resistance, including a strike with unforseen and tragic consequences. Few readers of audiobooks can match Frederick Davidson's remarkable skill, and he needs all of it to cope with French pronunciations and divergent conversations, which require him to distinguish among many characters. Happily, he's equal to the task, rendering this complex, yet worthwhile, novel accessible to all listeners. T.H. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine