Valerie Martin novel snags prize

American writer Valerie Martin has won the Orange Prize for Fiction for her novel “Property.”

The Orange Prize is given to the best English-language novel by a female writer and carries an award of $40,000.

The book, about a plantation owner’s wife in the American South, takes place in the 1820s. It was described in a Salon review as “a ferociously honest book” about black-white relations and slavery.

“Property” was chosen over “The Little Friend,” by Donna Tartt; “The Autograph Man,” by Zadie Smith; “Unless,” by Carol Shields; “Heligoland,” by Shena Mackay; and “Buddha Da,” by Anne Donovan.

From Associated Press