 The book received much praise and is a library and school selection worldwide in several languages.Gavalda's first novel, "Je l'aimais" ("Someone I Loved") was published in France in February 2002 and later that year in English.Inspired by the failure of her own marriage, it too was a major literary success and a bestseller and was followed by the short (96 pages) young adult novel "35 kilos d'espoir" ("95 Pounds of Hope") that she said she wrote "to pay tribute to those of my students who were dunces in school but otherwise fantastic people".