The Elegance of the Hedgehog

I finished The Elegance of the Hedgehog last night, my book from France. This book was far different than I had expected. I was wanting to get some ideas about culture, geography, food, etc from the books I read, but since I didn't actually research any of these books before I picked them (beyond whether they looked interesting), that's really my fault. But I did really like this book- it was very philosophical, which is something that I really like. The two main characters both lived in a very elite sort of neighborhood. One was a 12-year old girl who lived in this expensive apartment, while the other main character was the concierge. They complemented each other very well, but they didn't even really meet until pretty far through the book.
Probably the most inspiring thing I read was a quote from it that was something like "The purpose of life is to find those moments that are dying." This took me some time to figure out, and I'm sure that many people would understand it differently. The way I read it, it meant that the purpose of life is to find the moments you can never have again. The moments that are happening just for a moment, the moments where something beautiful is ending. In the book specifically, it was a flower petal falling almost silently to the floor, a moment where beauty was ending, but ending beautifully.
And speaking of endings, the ending of this book was stunning. I'd never actually read a book where the ending was so surprising that I thought I had read it wrong. But this book was that- quite an ending. This book was enchanting, absorbing, and quite thought-provoking.