They discover their kindred souls when a wealthy Japanese man named Ozu arrives in the building. Paloma and Renee hide both their true talents and their finest qualities from a world they suspect cannot or will not appreciate them. Until then she will continue behaving as everyone expects her to behave: a mediocre pre-teen high on adolescent subculture, a good but not an outstanding student, an obedient if obstinate daughter. She is the daughter of a tedious parliamentarian, a talented and startlingly lucid child who has decided to end her life on the sixteenth of June, her thirteenth birthday. Then there's Paloma, a twelve-year-old genius. With humor and intelligence she scrutinizes the lives of the building's tenants, who for their part are barely aware of her existence. Yet, unbeknownst to her employers, Renee is a cultured autodidact who adores art, philosophy, music, and Japanese culture.

Outwardly she conforms to every stereotype of the concierge: fat, cantankerous, addicted to television.

Renee, the concierge, is witness to the lavish but vacuous lives of her numerous employers. We are in the center of Paris, in an elegant apartment building inhabited by bourgeois families. This is a moving, funny, triumphant novel that exalts the quiet victories of the inconspicuous among us. Only he is able to gain Paloma's trust and to see through Renée's timeworn disguise to the secret that haunts her. Paloma and Renée hide both their true talents and their finest qualities from a world they suspect cannot or will not appreciate them. She is the daughter of a tedious parliamentarian, a talented and startlingly lucid child who has decided to end her life on the 16th of June, her thirteenth birthday. Then there's Paloma, a 12-year-old genius. Yet, unbeknownst to her employers, Renée is a cultured autodidact who adores art, philosophy, music, and Japanese culture. Renée, the concierge, is witness to the lavish but vacuous lives of her numerous employers. The enthralling international bestseller.

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