Muriel Barbery

Muriel Barbery (born 28 May 1969 in Casablanca, Morocco) is a French novelist and professor of philosophy.

Biography

Barbery studied at the Lycée Lakanal, entered the École Normale Supérieure de Fontenay-Saint-Cloud in 1990 and obtained her agrégation in philosophy in 1993. She then taught philosophy at the Université de Bourgogne, in a lycée, and at the Saint-Lô IUFM (teacher training college).^[1]

Her novel L'Élégance du hérisson (translated into English by Alison Anderson as The Elegance of the Hedgehog) topped the French best-seller lists for 30 consecutive weeks^[2] and was reprinted 50 times. By May 2008 it had sold more than a million copies.^[3] It concerns the inhabitants of a small Paris apartment block, notably its crypto-intellectual concierge, Renée. She and Paloma, the likewise intellectual teenage daughter of a resident family, narrate the book in turn. Renée also features briefly in Barbery's first novel, Une Gourmandise, which appeared in Anderson's English translation as Gourmet Rhapsody in 2009.^[4]

Novels

• Une Gourmandise, Gallimard, 2000; in English, Gourmet Rhapsody, Europa Editions, 2009.
• L'Élégance du hérisson, Gallimard, 2006; in English The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Europa Editions, 2008.

References

1. ^ CV on the website of Villa Kujoyama
2. ^ Marianne No. 528, 2-8 June, p. 76
3. ^ http://www.livreshebdo.fr/actualites/DetailsActuRub.aspx?id=1821
4. ^ Interview highlights: 31 October 2010.

External links

• Personal blog and photos by Stéphane Barbery

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Name	Barbery, Muriel
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Date of birth	28 May 1969
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