Oh and who can forget Muriel Barbery’s 
THE ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG (2007). She enchanted us with Renée, the outwardly frumpy concierge of an exclusive Paris apartment building who pretends to be addicted to television but is really a self-taught philosopher and literary analyst. Alongside the acutely intelligent and introspective 12-year-old Paloma, the pair take a stand against French classism and hypocrisy.
This month Barbery returns with something completely different: a fairy story rooted in spiritually, art and the love of nature in The Lifes of Elves.