The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Read in 2015 (17 items)
list by Kankku

Leo Babauta's Fiction Recommendations '13 (17 items)
list by Marian

Staff recommendations (18 items)
list by HCLC

Set in Paris in an elegant apartment building, Renee, the concierge, is witness to the vacuous life of her many employers. Outwardly she conforms to the stereotype of a concierge: obese, grumpy, a television addict.
However, Renee is educated. She loves art, philosophy, music and Japanese culture. With humour and wit, she scrutinizes the lives of the buildings tenants who barely notice her.... read more

Description: 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 com 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. By turn moving and hilarious, this unusual novel became the top-selling book in France in 2007 with sales of over 900,000 copies to-date. ... (more) (less)