I know that Barbery is well served by her translator.

I don't know what Muriel Barbery's writing is like. This book is a delightful disappointment, a hugely successful failure, a predictable page-turner.Since I read a translation by novelist Alison Anderson, whose 'Hidden Latitudes' I read ten or so years ago and quite liked, any comment I make on the writing of this book is misplaced. Moving, funny, tender, and triumphant, Barbery's novel exalts the quiet victories of the inconspicuous among us. Only he sees through them, perceiving the secret that haunts Renée, winning Paloma's trust, and helping the two discover their kindred souls. She plans to kill herself on the sixteenth of June, her thirteenth birthday.īoth Renée and Paloma hide their true talents and finest qualities from the bourgeois families around them, until a wealthy Japanese gentleman named Ozu moves into building. Paloma Josse is a 12-year-old genius who behaves as everyone expects her to behave: a mediocre pre-teen high on adolescent subculture, a good but not outstanding student, an obedient if obstinate daughter. Her exterior (“short, ugly, and plump”) and demeanor (“poor, discreet, and insignificant”) belie her keen, questing mind and profound erudition. Renée Michel is the 54-year-old concierge of a luxury Paris apartment building. An enchanting New York Times and international bestseller about life, art, literature, philosophy, culture, class, privilege, and power, seen through the eyes of a 54-year old French concierge and a precocious but troubled 12-year-old girl.

The elegance of the hedgehog