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Raphael Selbourne wins First Novel Costa

Raphael Selbourne's first novel Beauty (Tindal Street Press) has won the First Novel Costa Award. Beauty - in name and appearance - is a twenty-year-old Bangladeshi, back in England having disgraced her family by fleeing an abusive arranged marriage.  Placed on the jobseeker's treadmill and under continuing domestic pressure, in desperation she runs away.

The judges have described the novel as 'pitch perfect on every level', adding that it 'captures the raw humanity of inner city life with extraordinary authenticity'.