Serbian-American writer tea obreht on the youngest-ever author to win the orange prize for fiction for her debut novel The Tiger's Wife. The six-book shortlist, which had three debut novelists and included room by Emma Donoghue, The memory of love by Aminatta Forna, Grace williams says it loud by Emma Henderson, Great House by Nicole Krauss and Annabel by Kathleen Winter.
The prize, exclusively for women writing in english, was set up in 1996 and last year American author barbara kingsolver won it for her critically-acclaimed novel, The Lacuna, British novelist Rose Tremain won the prize for the road Home in2008 and Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie won for half of a yellow sun in 2007.
New york-based Obreht was awarded $30,000 in proze money and a limited edition bronze figurine called the bessie at the awards ceremony held at the Royal festival Hall in London on Wednesday Night. Both the prize money and the figurine are anonymously endowed.
Twenty-Five-Year-Old Obreht, who was born in the former Yugoslavia, immigrated to the united states in 1997. She was feature in the New Yorker magazine's list of top 20 writers under40 in June 2010. Historian Bettany Huges, who chaired the jury, described "Obreht's powers of observation and her understanding of the world are remarkable. By skilfully spinning a series of magical tales she has managed to bring the tragedy of chronic Balkan conflict thumping into our front rooms with a bittersweet vivacity, ", she said.
"The book reminds us how easily we can slip into barbarity, but also of the breadth and depth of human love. Obreht celebrates story telling and she helps us to remember that it is the stones that we tell about our selves, and about others, that can make us who we are and the world what it is ".
