David Diop wins International Booker Prize

London: David Diop has become the first French writer to win the International Booker Prize, judges announced on Wednesday.

His second novel, At Night All Blood is Black, was inspired by his Senegalese great-grandfather's silence about his experiences in World War One.

The £50,000 prize will be split between Diop and the book's translator - US author and poet Anna Moschovakis.

It fended off competition from five other



shortlisted titles, including Éric Vuillard's The War of the Poor.

The International Booker Prize is awarded every year for a single book that is translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland.

This year's winning entry, by the French-Senegalese writer and literature professor, portrays a young man's descent into madness, and tells the story of the Senegalese who fought for France during the conflict.