Saranya Murthi won the £10,000 (about $13,155) Deborah Rogers Foundation Award for her novel, Ratri. The prize, founded in 2015 as a tribute to the late literary agent, offers financial support to unpublished writers. It is given biennially and is open to writers residing in the Commonwealth or Ireland.
Chair of the judges Erica Wagner said: "Saranya Murthi's Ratri stood out to us from the outset of the process. It is such vivid, specific writing--it's always challenging to create a truly convincing young voice, but with her eponymous narrator Murthi has nailed it; this extract is so alive, so compelling in its portrait of an awakening consciousness, a child at the mercy of her family and yet alert and self-willed: we can't help but thirst to know how the story will end."
The two runners-up were novels: June Aming for Yellow Is Not For Girls Like Me and Piers Kobina Buckman for Ascension. Each author receives £3,000 (about $3,945).