Kishwar Desai wins the First Novel Award for Witness the Night, which explores India’s hidden female infanticide and the first book of a series featuring the unconventional female protagonist, Simran Singh (January 4, 2011) The story takes place in a small town in the heart of India. A young girl, barely alive, is found in …
Beauty wins Costa First Novel Award
London, 19.30pm 4th January 2010 Former scooter salesman Raphael Selbourne scoops the Costa First Novel Award for Beauty. 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 jobseekers’ treadmill and under continuing domestic pressure, in desperation she …