Amazon description: “Renée is the concierge of a grand Parisian apartment building on the Left Bank. To the residents she is honest, reliable and uncultivated an ideal concierge. But Renée has a secret. Beneath this conventional façade she is passionate about culture and the arts, and more knowledgeable in many ways than her employers with their outwardly successful but emotionally void lives. Down in her lodge, Renée is resigned to living a lie, with only visits from her one friend Manuela to break the monotony. Meanwhile, several floors up, twelve-year-old Paloma Josse is determined to avoid the predictably bourgeois future laid out for her, and plans to commit suicide on her thirteenth birthday. But before this happens, the death of one of their privileged neighbours will bring dramatic change to number 7, Rue de Grenelle, altering the course of both their lives forever. With sales of over a million copies in French, this funny, moving and wise novel is now an international publishing sensation.”
What I thought:
I loved this book – perhaps even more so because I didn’t expect to. I found it refreshing, funny, thought-provoking and very quirky.
There are two narrators, each taking a turn with a chapter or two. The first is 54 year old widowed Renee who is caretaker of a large Parisien appartment block with very well-to-do residents who largely ignore her unless barking orders. Renee has a secret though – she loves Tolstoy, classical music and Japanese films; but why upset the neighbours by confusing them by having an intelligent concierge? The second narrator is Paloma, aged 12, daugher of a government minister living in the entire 5th floor of the building, highly intelligent, cynical, bored and planning to commit suicide on her 13th birthday. Both go about their daily business as normal until a death in the building and subsequently a new resident arriving turns both their worlds upside down.
I found this book such a lovely read – it made me think, it made me question and it had plenty of laugh-out-loud moments (Paloma imparticular). I’m so glad I picked this book up and so glad it far surpassed my expectations.
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