Bibliofemme News

The woman-only prize was originally designed to bring attention to female writers. This is the 10th year of the Orange Prize for Fiction.

Shriver's story is about a teenager who commits mass murder in a Columbine-type massacre.

The central figure, however, is his mother - a woman who does not like her own child.

The book provoked fierce reactions for violating a major parenting taboo.

"We Need to Talk About Kevin is a book that acknowledges what many women worry about but never express; the fear of becoming a mother and the terror of what kind of child one might bring into the world," the head of the Orange jury, Jenni Murray, said at the award ceremony in London.

The other finalists were Joolz Denby's Billie Morgan, Jane Gardam's Old Filth, Sheri Holman's The Mammoth Chase, Marina Lewycka's A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian and Maile Meloy's Liars & Saints.

According to the BBC website, Shriver said she felt "a little unreal" and, after 20 years as a struggling author, was "not used to things going well".

We Need to Talk About Kevin is Shriver's seventh book and was originally published by the small US company Serpent's Tail.

Shriver, 48, lives in New York and London, and has written for The Wall Street Journal and The Economist.

She changed her name from Margaret Ann to Lionel when she was 15 years old, because she believed that men have an easier time in life.

British author Diana Evans won the inaugural £10,000 Orange Award for New Writers with her debut novel 26a.

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