Australian author Richard Flanagan's "The Narrow Road to the Deep North", set during the building of the Thailand-Burma "Death Railway" in the World War II, won Britain's prestigious 50,000-pound ($79,530) Man Booker literature prize on Tuesday.
"In Australia the Man Booker is sometimes seen as something of a chicken raffle," Flanagan said after receiving the prize. "I just didn't expect to end up the chicken."
Flanagan's sixth novel beat out what jury chairman Anthony Grayling said was a strong short list of six books that for the first time, under a rule change, included works by two Americans, giving rise to fears beforehand that the British prize might come to be dominated by American writers.  Flanagan, 53, is ranked among Australia's finest novelists.     ?Reuters