A Moroccan-born author, Tahar Ben Jelloun, has won the 2004 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for his novel 'This Blinding Absence of Light'.
The novel tells the story of the survivors of desert concentration camps in Morocco when it was under the rule of King Hassan II.
The award, worth €100,000, is the world's largest literary prize for a single work of fiction.
Other books on the shortlist included 'The Book of Illusions' by Paul Auster, 'Any Human Heart' by William Boyd and 'Earth and Ashes' by Atiq Rahimi.
Tahar Ben Jelloun will read at this year's Dublin Writers Festival on Saturday 19 June at 1pm in Project with Jonathan Buckley and Christine Dwyer Hickey.
