Morrocan writer Tahar Ben Jelloun has won the prestigious International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for his novel This Blinding Absence of Light.
The book tells the horrific story of the desert concentration camps in which King Hassan II of Morocco held his political enemies.
It was not until 1991 that Hassan's regime was forced, under international pressure, to open up these camps.
A handful of survivors - described as "living cadavers", some of whom had shrunk by over a foot in height - emerged from the six-by-three-foot cells in which they had been held underground for decades.
Working closely with one of the survivors, Ben Jelloun weaved the horrific real-life narrative into a work of fiction.
The IMPAC's €100,000 prize remains the single biggest award for a piece of literature in English. The prize money is divided, with €75,000 going to the winning author and €25,000 going to the translator.
Commenting on this year's award the international panel of judges said: " This Blinding Absence of Lightis a masterpiece among novels, told with searing simplicity and the sparest of language (due credit to the translator, Linda Coverdale).
"It tells one man's story of twenty years in appalling conditions of deprivation, brutality, inhumanity, silence."
The book was among ten titles selected from a longlist of 125, nominated by 162 libraries from 47 countries; 35 nominated titles were in translation.
Among the other writers shortlisted for the award were Indian writer Rohinton Mistry; two US novelists Jeffrey Eugenides and Paul Auster; and British writer, William Boyd.
Winner of the 1994 Prix Maghreb, Ben Jelloun was born in Fez, Morocco, and emigrated to France. A novelist, essayist, critic, and poet, he is a regular contributor to Le Monde, La Répubblica, El Paísnewspapers and the BBC's Panorama.
