Title: The Elegance of the Hedgehog
First published: 2008
Description: EA novel by the French professor of philosophy Muriel Barbery. The book centers on a working-class concierge of an upscale apartment building in Paris, Renee Michel. She is an auto-didact of immense learning who deliberately conceals her intelligence. Her secret is discovered by a young resident of the building named Paloma. The novel is narrated alternately by each of these two characters.

First released in August 2006 by Gallimard, the novel became a bestseller of over a million copies.
Subjects: Apartment dwellers, class in fiction, Apartment concierges, Fiction, philosophical novel, Fiction, general, Paris (france), fiction, Friendship, Large type books, nyt:trade-fiction-paperback=2008-12-07, New York Times bestseller, New York Times reviewed
Places: France, Paris, Paris (France)
LC classification: PQ2662.A6523