Muriel Barbery: The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Renee is the concierge of a grand Parisian apartment building. To the snobbish residents she is all they expect from a caretaker – hard working, dowdy and unsophisticated. But Renee has a secret. Beneath this facade she is a self-taught intellectual, devoted to Japanese arthouse cinema and her cat, Leo Tolstoy. Meanwhile, several floors up, twelve-year-old Paloma has also learned to conceal her gifts. The precocious and lonely daughter of pampered parents, Paloma is convinced that life is meaningless and plans to end it all on her next birthday. But the arrival of a charismatic new resident will bring dramatic change to 7, Rue de Grenelle, altering the course of both their lives forever.