{{short description|French novelist and philosophy teacher|bot=PearBOT 5}} 200px|thumb|right|Barbery in 2009 '''Muriel Barbery''' (born 28 May 1969) is a French novelist and philosophy teacher.<ref>Groskop, Viv (2008-09-14). [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/sep/14/fiction3?gusrc=rss&feed=books "Confessions of a clever concierge". The Guardian.] Retrieved 2017-04-04.</ref> Her 2006 novel ''The Elegance of the Hedgehog'' quickly sold more than a million copies in several countries.
==Biography== Barbery was born in Casablanca, Morocco, but she and her parents moved when she was two months old. She 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). After she quit her job, she lived in 2008–2009 in Japan. She currently lives in Europe.
Her novel ''L'Élégance du hérisson'' (translated by Alison Anderson as ''The Elegance of the Hedgehog'') topped the French bestseller lists for 30 consecutive weeks<ref>''Marianne'' No. 528, 2–8 June, p. 76</ref> and was reprinted 50 times, selling over a million copies by May 2008.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.livreshebdo.fr/actualites/DetailsActuRub.aspx?id=1821|title="L'élégance du hérisson" franchit le cap du million d'exemplaires|access-date=2009-02-19|archive-date=2009-07-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090727194918/http://www.livreshebdo.fr/actualites/DetailsActuRub.aspx?id=1821|url-status=dead}}</ref> It has also been a bestseller in Italy, Germany, Spain, South Korea, and in many other countries. The story concerns the inhabitants of a small upper-class Paris apartment block, notably its crypto-intellectual concierge, Renée. She and Paloma, the likewise intellectual (even radical) 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.<ref>Interview highlights: [http://www.bookstorepeople.com/2009/05/lost-in-translation-ii-a-conversation-with-muriel-barbery/Retrieved 31 October 2010.]</ref>
''The Elegance of the Hedgehog'' was turned into a 2009 film called ''Le Hérisson'' (in English ''The Hedgehog''), directed by Mona Achache.
In 2025, One Hour of Fervor was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award.<ref>{{Cite web |last=IGO |date=2025-01-14 |title=One Hour of Fervor |url=https://dublinliteraryaward.ie/the-library/books/one-hour-of-fervor/ |access-date=2025-01-22 |website=Dublin Literary Award |language=en-US}}</ref>
==Novels== *''Une gourmandise'', Gallimard, 2000; in English, ''Gourmet Rhapsody'', Europa Editions, August 2009. *''L'élégance du hérisson'', Gallimard, 2006; in English ''The Elegance of the Hedgehog'', Europa Editions, September 2008. *''La vie des elfes'', Gallimard, March 2015; in English (translated by Alison Anderson) ''The Life of Elves'', Europa Editions, February 2016. *''Un étrange pays'', Gallimard, January 2019. *''Une rose seule'', Éditions Actes Sud, August 2020. *''Une heure de ferveur'', January 2022; in English (translated by Alison Anderson) ''One Hour of Fervour'', 2024.
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
==External links== * [http://www.murielbarbery.net/ Official website]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Barbery, Muriel}} Category:1969 births Category:Living people Category:People from Casablanca Category:20th-century French novelists Category:21st-century French novelists Category:ENS Fontenay-Saint-Cloud-Lyon alumni Category:Academic staff of the University of Burgundy Category:Prix des libraires winners Category:Lycée Lakanal alumni Category:20th-century French women writers Category:21st-century French women writers