American writer Barbara Kingsolver has won this year’s Orange Prize for Fiction for her novel The Lacuna.
Fifty-five-year-old Kingsolver, who is based in Arizona, United States, is famous for her book, The Poisonwood Bible, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize in 1999.
Booker prize-winner Hilary Mantel had been a bookie favourite to win the £30,000 prize, which was presented to Kingsolver by Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, at a ce
remony at Southbank Centre in central London on Wednesday evening. Kingsolver, who has written five novels before this one, was second favourite to win the prestigious prize. She took almost nine years to write the novel about Harrison Shepherd and his interaction with Mexican painter Diego Riviera, his wife and artist Frida Kahlo and exiled Bolshevik leader Lev Trotsky.
The prize, which was instituted 15 years ago to award women writers, also includes a limited edition bronze known as a “Bessie”, created and donated by the artist Grizel Niven.
Praising Kingsolver’s book, head of jury Daisy Goodwin said: “We had very different tastes on the panel, but in the end we went for passion not compromise. We chose The Lacuna because it is a book of breathtaking scale and shattering moments of poignancy.” The award for new writers, a £10,000 bursary provided by Arts Council England, was presented to Zimbabwean author Irene Sabatini for her debut novel The Boy Next Door.
The Orange prize, set up in 1996, has been controversial and has faced a flurry of criticism as it is exclusively for women novelists. Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer said at Hay Festival that she was personally against any prizes which awarded writers based on their gender, colour or race.