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Review
"Shocking, explosive, and tender--I could not put it down." --Maggie Gee, author, "The White Family"
Product Description
Beauty - in both name and appearance - is a twenty-year-old Bangladeshi, back in England having shocked her family by fleeing an abusive arranged marriage. Now she is forced onto the jobseekers' treadmill.
Her fractious encounters with officialdom, fellow claimants, strangers and passers-by in the city streets, exacerbated by the restrictions (and comfort) of her language and culture, place her at the mercy of such unlikely helpers as Mark, a friendly, dog-owning ex-offender, and Peter, the middle-class underachiever on the rebound from a bitter relationship.
Such 'white' influences conflict with the pressure to toe the family religious line, enforced by her older brother, but enable Beauty to understand better how free will and parental care affect her personal destiny in fragmented inner-city England today.
WINNER OF THE COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2009
'Captures the raw humanity of inner city life with extraordinary authenticity.' Costa Judges 2009
'Shocking, explosive and tender: I could not put it down' Maggie Gee 'Selbourne brilliantly plays out a comedy of conflicting cultural and class expectations, repeatedly confounding reader's expectations… Through Beauty herself, he gives the tale of the innocent abroad an original twist' Financial Times
'Selbourne writes convincingly both of Beauty's Bengali household and Mark's working-class world of casual sex, pubs and hard manual labour. Grim and threatening, this first novel is also occasionally very funny' Independent
'Selbourne's depiction of the relationship between Beauty and Mark is touching. The innocence of their friendship is unexpected and sweetly convincing' Observer
Her fractious encounters with officialdom, fellow claimants, strangers and passers-by in the city streets, exacerbated by the restrictions (and comfort) of her language and culture, place her at the mercy of such unlikely helpers as Mark, a friendly, dog-owning ex-offender, and Peter, the middle-class underachiever on the rebound from a bitter relationship.
Such 'white' influences conflict with the pressure to toe the family religious line, enforced by her older brother, but enable Beauty to understand better how free will and parental care affect her personal destiny in fragmented inner-city England today.
WINNER OF THE COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2009
'Captures the raw humanity of inner city life with extraordinary authenticity.' Costa Judges 2009
'Shocking, explosive and tender: I could not put it down' Maggie Gee 'Selbourne brilliantly plays out a comedy of conflicting cultural and class expectations, repeatedly confounding reader's expectations… Through Beauty herself, he gives the tale of the innocent abroad an original twist' Financial Times
'Selbourne writes convincingly both of Beauty's Bengali household and Mark's working-class world of casual sex, pubs and hard manual labour. Grim and threatening, this first novel is also occasionally very funny' Independent
'Selbourne's depiction of the relationship between Beauty and Mark is touching. The innocence of their friendship is unexpected and sweetly convincing' Observer
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
37 of 38 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Beauty is a nineteen year-old Bengali woman who grew up in London and was then taken to Bangladesh and forced into marriage with a man in his forties when she was fourteen. Beauty had the courage to scream the place down when her husband tried to have sex with her, and he never tried again. Now disgraced and back home in Wolverhampton with her family she lives a life of drudgery, cleaning and cooking for her two brutish brothers and her bulllying father. Her mother is inert and depressed and Beauty fears for her younger sister who seems destined to share the terrifying fate of a disempowered female in a rigid, male-dominated Muslim family. She decides to leave home and make a new life. Along the way she meets a number of interesting people including ex-con Mark with his gang of neglected dogs and a heart of gold, and the narcissistic Peter who has lustful designs on her. She gets work in a residential home for the elderly and gradually begins to understand what she really wants in life. And on her journey she manages to bring some kind of happiness to all the people she meets, enabling them to confront their own demons.
The story is told in a direct, unsentimental yet sympathetic way so that the reader understands and cares about the characters. The writing style is direct, evocative, humourous and immensely skilled, although some readers might become irritated by the italicised asides in Beauty's native language. And what a relief to read a new novel entirely devoid of the affected showy-off writing selected by a number of best-selling authors I have read recently.
I was sorry to reach the rather surprising end of the story, and within a few hours sat down and started to read it all over again.
This book will tell many readers more than they have ever known before about the Asian culture - its variety, its view of other immigrant groups, its warmth and its sometimes appallingly primitive beliefs and behaviour.
A truly satisfying and enjoyable read. Highly recommended - I'm telling all my friends.
The story is told in a direct, unsentimental yet sympathetic way so that the reader understands and cares about the characters. The writing style is direct, evocative, humourous and immensely skilled, although some readers might become irritated by the italicised asides in Beauty's native language. And what a relief to read a new novel entirely devoid of the affected showy-off writing selected by a number of best-selling authors I have read recently.
I was sorry to reach the rather surprising end of the story, and within a few hours sat down and started to read it all over again.
This book will tell many readers more than they have ever known before about the Asian culture - its variety, its view of other immigrant groups, its warmth and its sometimes appallingly primitive beliefs and behaviour.
A truly satisfying and enjoyable read. Highly recommended - I'm telling all my friends.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This has to be one of the best books I have ever read and the fact this is a debut novel makes it all the more exciting if this is the type of fiction we can expect from this new author.
The plot is described by the previous 5 star review so I won't go into detail (although Beauty is 20, not 25).
It has absolutely everything a gripping story needs; from the first page the story draws you in. There are only a handful of main characters whose development is fascinating. The story is extremely well researched (I work in an inner city area and experience these stories daily) right down to the language, the clothes, the environment, the behaviour. It is disturbing in a way no other book I have ever read is; in a way it is a horror story, the story of people living in an inner city and how those lives are so very different from others. The book shows the despair alongside hope, it is fast paced and not written in any pretentious literary style (considering this is an award winning book) which means it will appeal to many.
The journeys of the characters make for a story so full of many layers; injustice, poverty, social issues, love, family and lots more including western caucasian attitudes to family as well as the Asian aspect of the story. The comparisons between the cultures are so interesting and thought provoking.
Highly recommended and thoroughly deserving of any award presented to it.
The plot is described by the previous 5 star review so I won't go into detail (although Beauty is 20, not 25).
It has absolutely everything a gripping story needs; from the first page the story draws you in. There are only a handful of main characters whose development is fascinating. The story is extremely well researched (I work in an inner city area and experience these stories daily) right down to the language, the clothes, the environment, the behaviour. It is disturbing in a way no other book I have ever read is; in a way it is a horror story, the story of people living in an inner city and how those lives are so very different from others. The book shows the despair alongside hope, it is fast paced and not written in any pretentious literary style (considering this is an award winning book) which means it will appeal to many.
The journeys of the characters make for a story so full of many layers; injustice, poverty, social issues, love, family and lots more including western caucasian attitudes to family as well as the Asian aspect of the story. The comparisons between the cultures are so interesting and thought provoking.
Highly recommended and thoroughly deserving of any award presented to it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an interesting book detailing the life of a young girl just out of her teens attempting to adjust to life in a West Midlands town(Wolverhampton) surrounded by strangers in a strange environment.As a Bangladesshi the pressures on her to enter into an arranged marriage lead to her running away into an even stranger series of encounters as she fights for her personal freedom.The author
uses the Bangladesshi idiom as well as slang English to create an oppressive atmosphere which runs through out the book.I found it difficult to switch from the two different speech patterns at the beginning but gradually grew into the the rhythm of writing used by the author and found the experience worthwhile.
(120 words)
uses the Bangladesshi idiom as well as slang English to create an oppressive atmosphere which runs through out the book.I found it difficult to switch from the two different speech patterns at the beginning but gradually grew into the the rhythm of writing used by the author and found the experience worthwhile.
(120 words)
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Nice and interesting
The story is very interesting, it pictures the problems of a Bengali girl who has been forced to an arranged marriage and her adventures, when she leave home and she meet a lot of... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Behzad
Beauty, A Must Read Novel.
Beauty is Raphael Selbourne's first novel and is a must read! It isn't a book I would normally read but I thoroughly enjoyed reading it! Read more
Published 5 months ago by Eva Coleman
Beauty by Raphael Selbourne Review:
Beauty a twenty year old Bangladeshi could be any young women walking past you down the high street, within the pages of this novel we go on a journey with this captivating... Read more
Published 6 months ago by stephaniecroucher
A good read
Set in Wolverhampton the voice of the character comes across(if you are familiar with a brummie accent) and the story is a good read with the main character Beauty meeting people... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Mrs. J. Smith
Lacked authenticity
Although I enjoyed Selbourne's writing style in general, and the idea of the story, there are a few things that troubled me about this novel. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Sophie Hannah Rogers
A heartfelt battle of self discovery
`He started touching me when I was ten years old... and tried to rape me when I was twelve... beat me until I married at forty-five-year-old'
Raphael Selbourne's Beauty is raw... Read more
Raphael Selbourne's Beauty is raw... Read more
Published 17 months ago by SW22
Beauty by Raphael Selbourne -Review
Rebecca Davis. Book Review.
Book title: Beauty
Author: Raphael Selbourne
`Beauty` , by Raphael Selbourne, explores the cultural challenges experienced by minority... Read more
Book title: Beauty
Author: Raphael Selbourne
`Beauty` , by Raphael Selbourne, explores the cultural challenges experienced by minority... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Becky Davis
Beauty
Beauty
By Raphael Selbourne
Review by Thanh Thao Huynh
The book of novelist Raphael Selbourne made me feel as if I had been to Wolverhampton and followed... Read more
By Raphael Selbourne
Review by Thanh Thao Huynh
The book of novelist Raphael Selbourne made me feel as if I had been to Wolverhampton and followed... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Thanh Thao Huynh
Brilliant
Beauty is the eponymous protagonist of Raphael Selbourne's first novel. She is a twenty-year-old Bangladeshi girl who has fled an arranged marriage to a man more than double her... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Clare
Nice idea but poorly executed
I liked the idea of this book and thought it would make an interesting story, but I really struggled with the way that it was written. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Sarah H
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