Book Mark: 2011 Orange Prize Winners

The youngest-ever winner of the £30,000 (about $48,000 Cdn) annual literary honour that celebrates female writers of English-language fiction was announced June 8.

Debut Novelist Tea Orbeht won the 2011 Orange Prize for her first book, The Tiger's Wife. The Tiger's Wife, which mixes realism and fantasy, is set in her native Balkans and follows a young doctor trying to unravel the death of her grandfather.

The novel is "an exceptional book" and its author "a truly exciting new talent," said jury chair Bettany Hughes.

"Obreht's powers of observation and her understanding of the world are remarkable. By skillfully spinning a series of magical tales she has managed to bring the tragedy of chronic Balkan conflict thumping into our front rooms," Hughes said.

"The book reminds us how easily we can slip into barbarity, but also of the breadth and depth of human love."

The Orange Prize Youth Panel, a group of six teens who read the shortlisted novels, selected Emma Donoghue's Room as its winner, with the author saying she was "tickled pink" to have appealed to the young readers.