IN BEAUTIFUL DISGUISES - Softcover

Life may not be easy for a sixteen-year-old girl living in small-town South India, especially when she's blessed with a family like hers: an over-dutiful sister; a brother who watches TV as an occupation; a father who drinks and bullies his family and a silent mother. When the inevitable marriage is arranged for her, fuelled by her dreams and Audrey Hepburn movies, she runs away to The City. Secretly hoping she will step right into the shoes of her favourite character, Holly Golightly, she enters the service of the benevolent Mr Aziz. Making new friends - Raju the servant with the heart of a revolutionary, Maneka the maid who disappears each night, and Armand, Mr Aziz's arrogant but seductive son - she embraces this brave new world (acquiring a taste for croissants and champagne) but soon realises she can't run forever...

Rajeev Balasubramanyam was born in 1973 in Lancashire, England and is a graduate from both Oxford and Cambridge Universities. In Beautiful Disguises is his first novel. He has also been short-listed for the Ian St James short-story award.