The Elegance of the Hedgehog

The French novel that convinced half the world that intelligence can coexist with modesty and marginality. Renée, the cultured concierge who pretends to be dull, and Paloma, the girl planning to kill herself, recognize each other in a very elegant mirror play. Barbery is a philosopher by training and it shows, sometimes too much, but the tenderness that permeates the novel saves the theoretical excesses. For readers who want something between the novel of ideas and the character story.