Orange Prize for Fiction goes to Téa Obreht

Téa Obreht, at 25, is the youngest ever winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction, now in its 16th year. She won this year's prize for her novel The Tiger's Wife, which is also her debut novel. This is a bit of an upset, since Emma Donoghue's Room had been bandied about as the favourite.

The Serbian/American writer beat out Irish/Canadian Donoghue (Room), Canadian Kathleen Winter (Annabel), British/Sierra Leonean Aminatta Forna (The Memory of Love), American Nicole Krauss (Great House), and British Emma Henderson (Grace Williams Says it Loud). (The Orange Prize is awarded exclusively to women writers.)

Really, though, this is one of those awards where just being nominated can give you a huge boost in sales. So congratulations to Téa and to everyone else who was shortlisted.

Image shown the cover of the Random House edition of The Tiger's Wife.