Book #15 in 2012
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
by Muriel Barbery
"Renee 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 facade lies the real Renee:
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, Renee 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."
April 19th to April 24th - 6 days - 325 pages
Notes:
no. fuck this book.
