The Canadian writer, Anne Michaels, won the Orange Prize for Fiction last night at reception in London, beating Deirdre Madden, from Northern Ireland, and four other women writers, Rachel Borrill reports.
Ms Michaels was presented with a £30,000 sterling cheque and a limited edition bronze at the Whitehall reception. Her winning novel, Fugitive Pieces, is her first book and tells the story of a young boy rescued from the mud of a buried Polish city during the second World War and his subsequent life on a Greek island.
The other five titles shortlisted for the women only prize were: Alias Grace by Margaret Attwood; One by One In The Darkness by Deirdre Madden; I Was Amelia Earhart by Jane Mendelsohn; Accordion Crimes by E. Annie Proulx and Hen's Teeth by Manda Scott.