The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Renee Michel is the 54-year-old concierge of an aristocratic apartment building at 7 rue de Grenelle in Paris's Left Bank. She plays the role expected of her, frumpy and curt, while reading Tolstoy and Husserl in her back room and writing private essays on phenomenology. Paloma Josse is the 12-year-old daughter of a senator on the fifth floor, brilliant and miserable, planning to kill herself on her thirteenth birthday. When a wealthy Japanese widower named Kakuro Ozu moves into the recently vacated fourth-floor apartment, he sees through Renee's disguise and pulls Paloma into the same orbit. The novel moves between Renee's journal and Paloma's diary, building a study of class, art, and the secret intelligence inside a closed building.
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A Parisian concierge hides her literary mind from the wealthy tenants she serves until a new Japanese resident sees past her disguise.
The Elegance of the Hedgehog was written by Muriel Barbery and originally published in French as L'Elegance du herisson in 2006. The English translation by Alison Anderson was released in 2008. The novel was a global bestseller.
Yes. A 2009 French film adaptation, The Hedgehog (Le Herisson), directed by Mona Achache was released. The film is widely considered a faithful adaptation.
The Elegance of the Hedgehog is 376 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Elegance of the Hedgehog takes most readers 6 to 8 hours to finish.
The Elegance of the Hedgehog is a standalone novel by Muriel Barbery, not part of a series.
The Elegance of the Hedgehog is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.