Synopsis (credit: www.amazon.co.uk)

Renée is the concierge of a grand Parisian apartment building, home to members of the great and the good. Over the years she has maintained her carefully constructed persona as someone reliable but totally uncultivated, in keeping, she feels, with society's expectations of what a concierge should be. But beneath this façade lies the real Renée: passionate about culture and the arts, and more knowledgeable in many ways than her employers with their outwardly successful but emotionally void lives. Down in her lodge, apart from weekly visits by her one friend Manuela, Renée lives resigned to her lonely lot with only her cat for company.

Meanwhile, several floors up, twelve-year-old Paloma Josse is determined to avoid the pampered and vacuous future laid out for her, and decides to end her life on her thirteenth birthday. But unknown to them both, the sudden death of one of their privileged neighbours will dramatically alter their lives forever.

Shortlist: IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2010.
On the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die List.

(Bought second-hand at Books Galore, Plattekloof.)

Some readers believe a new book should be given no more than 100 pages to prove itself. If I used that criterion, I would have missed out on what The Elegance of the Hedgehog had to offer. Too much philosophising* made the first part rather dry, but things improved once Japanese businessman Kakuro Ozu entered the picture. In the end it turned out to be an enjoyable read with some interesting ideas.

One niggle: The book critisises vanity and discrimination based on factors like social class and wealth, yet there is an underlying feeling that those who are intellectual and erudite are just that little bit more OK than others. That, and the occasional tendency to be too sentimental towards the end, made this an "almost 8" rather than an 8 for me.

* I understood why when I later learnt that Muriel Barbery was a professor of philosophy. She couldn't resist. :)

Given to a friend and potential BookCrosser who is fascinated by Japanese culture.