About this ebook
Beauty - in both name and appearance - is a twenty-year-old Bangladeshi, back in
England having disgraced her family by fleeing an abusive arranged marriage. Forced onto
the jobseeker's treadmill and under extreme domestic pressure, she cracks and runs away.
Her encounters with officialdom, fellow claimants, and strangers in the city streets,
complicated by the restrictions and comfort of her language and culture, place her at the
mercy of such unlikely helpers as Mark, a friendly, Staffordshire bull terrier-breeding exoffender,
and Peter, a middle-class underachiever on the rebound from a bitter relationship.
With determination and good humour, Beauty moves ever closer to making her choice
between family duty and personal freedom. All the while, however, her brothers are
searching for her across town. Can she make the choice herself, before she's forced to?
A sharply rendered, compassionate and challenging portrait of a fragmented, multicultural
urban England.
England having disgraced her family by fleeing an abusive arranged marriage. Forced onto
the jobseeker's treadmill and under extreme domestic pressure, she cracks and runs away.
Her encounters with officialdom, fellow claimants, and strangers in the city streets,
complicated by the restrictions and comfort of her language and culture, place her at the
mercy of such unlikely helpers as Mark, a friendly, Staffordshire bull terrier-breeding exoffender,
and Peter, a middle-class underachiever on the rebound from a bitter relationship.
With determination and good humour, Beauty moves ever closer to making her choice
between family duty and personal freedom. All the while, however, her brothers are
searching for her across town. Can she make the choice herself, before she's forced to?
A sharply rendered, compassionate and challenging portrait of a fragmented, multicultural
urban England.
About the author
Born in Oxford within a distinguished academic family, Raphael studied
politics at Sussex University, before moving to Italy where he was a translator,
sold TV advertising and scooters. He has also taught in China and
since 2004 in the West Midlands, where he now lives. He interrupted an
MA in Islamic Studies at Birmingham University to write Beauty.
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