"Elegance of the Hedgehog," a novel

By Muriel Barbery

It has been a while since a book without much of a plot held me captivated to the very end. The Elegance of the Hedgehog did that with richness of its prose and intriguing, on times philosophical thoughts about society and mankind.

It's a first-person narrative told by two characters: a concierge in a bourgeois Parisian building and a 12-year-old wunderkind daughter of a French minister who lives in that building. In alternating chapters both characters wave parallel stories, through which we find out a little about their own lives and families, and a lot more about the Parisian society and its norms. It is at once funny, satirical and critical view of the French upper class.

The slow, linear progression of the story finally takes sharp turns when a respected restaurant critic from the building dies and his apartment is bought by a wealthy Japanese gentleman, who doesn't follow the unwritten code of conduct in the building and the society. He befriends both, the concierge and the teenage girl, and for the first time in the book both narrators come together. We are treated with the unique look on the same situation from two very different points of view.

Finally, it all ends with an unexpected twist which left me teary eyed wishing for more.

I've read some pretty negative reader's reviews of this book on Goodreads, the social network for book lovers. The only explanation I can think of is that the north American readers can't identify with this very French and European situation. (5/5)