Ootlin by Jenni Fagan won the £10,000 (about $12,905) Gordon Burn Prize, which honors "exceptional writing which has an unconventional perspective, style or subject matter and often defies easy categorization."
David Whitehouse, a member of the judging panel, said: "All of the books on the shortlist deserve recognition, but Jenni Fagan's Ootlin is a singular achievement. Everything about it--the language, the rhythm, the approach, the subject, the author--conspires to make a beautiful, vital, difficult, human piece of art."