Beauty

Raphael Selbourne (born 1968 in Oxford, England) is a British writer from a distinguished academic family, who studied politics at the University of Sussex before living in Italy as a translator and later in the West Midlands. His debut novel Beauty, set in urban England and exploring themes of cultural identity and personal freedom, won the 2009 Costa First Novel Award and the 2010 McKitterick Prize. He has published at least one other book and interrupted an MA in Islamic Studies to focus on writing.