Muriel Barbery, a French novelist and philosophy teacher, was born on May 28, 1969, in Casablanca, Morocco. However, she did not spend much time in Morocco as she and her parents moved to France when she was just two months old.
Barbery pursued her education at the Lycée Lakanal and later entered the École Normale Supérieure de Fontenay-Saint-Cloud in 1990. She obtained her agrégation in philosophy in 1993 and went on to teach philosophy at various institutions, including the Université de Bourgogne, a lycée, and the Saint-Lô IUFM.
After leaving her job, Barbery lived in Japan from 2008 to 2009, where she spent two years. She currently resides in Europe.
