The Indian writer, Kiran Desai, has won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction with her novel, 'The Inheritance of Loss'.
At a ceremony in London last night, she received a cheque for €74,000.
At 35, she is the youngest female winner of the award. Her mother, the writer Anita Desai, has been shortlisted for the prize three times.
'The Inheritance of Loss' is Kiran Desai's second novel.
It tells parallel stories set in post-colonial India and in the United States. It took her eight years to write.
Last night the judges described it as 'a magnificent novel of humane breadth and wisdom'.
Kiran Desai - who has lived in England, India and the US - dedicated the book to her mother.
As well as the prize money, winning the Man Booker guarantees a writer a huge boost in sales.
Among this year's shortlisted authors was MJ Hyland, who was born in London to Irish parents and who spent her early childhood in Dublin.
