by Muriel Barbery

This book was a runaway success when first published in French.
It has translated excellently into English, and explores the lives and minds of its two main characters: Renée, the 53 year old concierge in an upmarket Paris apartment building, and Paloma, a 12 year old daughter of one of the wealthy bourgeois families in the building. These two very different characters have more in common than they might realise, and the book leads the reader slowly through the events that draw them together.
It has also been made into a film with Josiane Balasko in the lead role. While adaptations of books into films frequently disappoint, the ingenuity of the casting of the actors and the devices used to allow the viewer enter into the minds of the principal characters ensure that the person who reads the book before seeing the film will be pleasantly surprised.