V. V. Ganeshananthan wins prestigious Carol Shields Prize

US author V. V. Ganeshananthan has won the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, worth US$150,000.

Her book “Brotherless Night,” published by Random House, was described by jurors as an ambitious and beautifully written novel about a young doctor caught in Sri Lanka’s civil war.

Ganeshananthan was named the winner of a Toronto gala for the prize, billed as the world’s largest English-language literary prize for women and non-binary authors.

Ganeshananthan, an instructor at the University of Minnesota, also won a coveted residency at the Fogo Island Inn on the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Other finalists – who each received $12,500 – included Canadians Janika Oza for “A History of Burning,” Claudia Dey for “Daughter” and Canadian-born, New Zealand-raised Eleanor Catton for “Birnam Wood.”