A must-read book for those who believe in building a new and better society:
Germinal (1885), the thirteenth novel in the Rougon-Macquart series that Émile Zola dedicates to the proletariat of the mine, tells the story of Étienne Lantier, a machinist in search of work, who arrives in Montsou. The writer describes, in a stark way, the gloomy and miserable world of the mine, portraying a group of people who live drowned in subhuman conditions and through whose veins the writer spreads hatred and resentment, human beings who are exhausted working in the midst of terrible frustration. The dreams of youth, the search for love, everything collides with the sinister reality of the mine, which takes lives and barely allows those who manage to get out of its dark well to live. But when bread is lacking, the miners go on strike, bringing out the best and worst of the human being in each and every one of them, and although its outcome may give the feeling of failure, the title of the novel says it all, and it is that hope cannot be completely lost because there is a seed left that will one day germinate. They have done nothing but sow it.