Bangladesh-born British novelist Zia Haider Rahman has won James Tait Black Literary Prize with his debut novel “In the Light of What We Know.”
Zia Haider Rahman was awarded with the Britain's oldest literary prize at the Edinburgh international book festival on Monday evening.
His book won the fiction prize of the £10,000, according to the website of the University of Edinburgh.
The book, In the Light of What We Know, was released in the spring of 2014 to international critical acclaim.
Born in Sylhet district of Bangladesh, the author was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, and at Cambridge, Munich, and Yale Universities.
Chairman of the James Tait Black Prize for fiction, Professor Randall Stevenson, of the University of Edinburgh, said: “Zia Haider Rahman addresses a whole range of issues - the war in Afghanistan, the rise of Muslim fundamentalism and the banking crisis.
“Moreover, he also explores problematic areas of politics and finance, which are often exiled from the pages of fiction, immersing his readers, dauntingly but comprehensibly. The novel’s impressive scope is complemented by Rahman’s ability to locate the personal in the political.”
The novelist joined some of the world's greatest literary names -DH Lawrence, Graham Greene, Angela Carter and Ian McEwan by winning this year's award which is annually hosted by the University of Edinburgh, since 1919.