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April 25, 2009
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Literary Affairs invites you to an exclusive fundraiser for the National Endowment for the Arts. Join us for a special evening celebrating Literature, Music and Art in honor of Muriel Barbery and her bestselling novel, The Elegance of the Hedgehog
at The William Turner Gallery. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery is a novel written above all to be read and to arouse emotions in the reader. The novel tells us that, "Art gives shape to our emotions, makes them visible and, in so doing, places a seal of eternity upon them..." This novel inspired me to have an evening in support of The National Endowment for the Arts. I hope that many children and communities in this country will continue to be touched and inspired by exposure to the arts. Literature, Art and Music have the power to change lives and I am asking for all of your generous support for the NEA which has been losing a lot of its funding for grants and programs. In return I offer you an evening in celebration of those arts and artists. I hope to see you all there. Julie DETAILS: 6:30-7:30PM: VIP Private Book Discussion with Muriel Barbery and Julie Robinson before joining the cocktail party. Requested Minimum Donation of $50 7:30-9PM: Cocktail Party with Muriel Barbery. Come enjoy an evening viewing the works of Greg Miller and Michael Tabori while listening to the beautiful strains of a string trio. You will have the opportunity to meet many local and out of town authors that are here for the LA Times Festival of Books. Requested Minimum Donation of $20 Book Soup will be selling books at the event and donating 10% of sales to the National Endowment for the Arts ABOUT THE BOOK We are in the center of Paris, in an elegant apartment building inhabited by bourgeois families. Renée, the concierge, is witness to the lavish but vacuous lives of her numerous employers. Outwardly she conforms to every stereotype of the concierge: fat, cantankerous, addicted to television. Yet, unbeknownst to her employers, Renée is a cultured autodidact who adores art, philosophy, music, and Japanese culture. With humor and intelligence she scrutinizes the lives of the building's tenants, who for their part are barely aware of her existence. Then there's Paloma, a 12-year-old genius. 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. 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. Paloma and Renée hide both their true talents and their finest qualities from a world they suspect cannot or will not appreciate them. They discover their kindred souls when a wealthy Japanese man named Ozu arrives in the building. Only he is able to gain Paloma's trust and to see through Renée's timeworn disguise to the secret that haunts her. This is a moving, funny, triumphant novel that exalts the quiet victories of the inconspicuous among us. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Muriel Barbery curently lives in Japan with her husband Stéphane. Her novel, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, has sold over 1.2 million copies in its native France and spent almost two years on the bestseller lists. It has enjoyed similar success in Italy, Spain, Germany, and many other countries. In the United States it has appeared on the New York Times bestseller list and the IndieBound bestseller list since shortly after its publication in September, 2008. Gourmet Rhapsody is Barbery's next book to be published in the US—available in september 2009 everywhere books are sold.  Event Info
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