Beauty (Selbourne novel)

Beauty is a 2009 novel by Raphael Selbourne about a young Muslim woman – the eponymous heroine – in search of personal freedom.

She meets Mark Aston, a young ex-con who is trying hard to stay on the right path as well as Peter Hemmings, his middle-class neighbour.

Peter has been unable to commit himself to his relationship with Kate Morgan, a career woman whose sophisticated feminist demands have alienated her from him.

Mark's attempts at teaching the illiterate young woman to read as well as Peter's lecturing her on Western thought, in particular atheism and Darwinism, help her gain some practical knowledge and skills but also reconsider her own prejudices and strengthen her own faith.

Somewhat empowered, Beauty, who has successfully fought off all timid advances by both Mark and Peter, has to choose between her family duty and her own freedom.