Philosophic and oh-so-French, Barbery peeks behind the curtain of a wealthy Parisian apartment, focusing her story through the prickly yet refined eyes of the concierge. Barbery's elegant prose reveals the inherent beauty in even the most ordinary things - a pot of camellias on the landing, the arrangement of fish in sashimi - and her reverence for the aesthetic invests beauty with the power of salvation, a position that infects the reader with its enthusiasm.

Add a liberal pinch of humour (the page long rant about the improper use of apostrophe's (J) is one of my favourite!) and you have a breath-taking book.