Jean Macquart, a former soldier, works as a farmhand in the wheat country of the Beauce, where old Fouan has decided to divide his land among his children. The division sets off a savage struggle for every furrow, and Jean, who loves a young peasant girl, is drawn into a family and a village where hunger for land overrides every other bond.
One of Zola’s darkest and most controversial novels, frank about brutality and sexuality in rural France. Download the free EPUB.