Muriel Barbery is a French novelist born in Casablanca. A graduate of the École Normale Supérieure, she holds a teaching degree in philosophy. Her first novel, *Une gourmandise*, was published in 2000 by Éditions Gallimard, followed by *L'Élégance du hérisson* in 2006, which has been translated into forty languages and sold over 10 million copies worldwide. *Thomas Helder*, published in 2024 by Actes Sud, is her seventh novel.