The Elegance of the Hedgehog

I recently read "The Elegance of the Hedgehog" by Muriel Barbery and while it took me almost half of the book to finally get into it, at the end I felt like it was well worth it. The novel was originally printed in French and was on the New York Times Bestseller list.

The story is mainly about an older woman who works as a concierge in an apartment building and a young girl who lives in the apartment building with her family. Both women are extremely smart and feel completely isolated from the world because of it. The older woman is of a lower station and therefore keeps her intelligence a secret for fear of others around her treating her badly because of it. The young girl comes from a wealthy family but her intellect separates her from her family who only seem to care about the most insignificant and trivial things in life. Both women's lives are changed forever when a new tenant moves into the apartment building.

I won't say anything more than that so that I don't ruin anything for anyone who wants to read it, but I was really touched by this story. Has anyone else read this? What were your thoughts?