Eimear McBride wins Women’s Prize for Fiction with debut novel

LONDON – British-Irish writer Eimear McBride has won this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction with her debut novel “A Girl is a Half-formed Thing.”

McBride’s novel, about a young, troubled Irish girl and her relationship with her brother, was up against five other books competing for the 30,000-pound ($50,000) prize.

Chair of judges Helen Fraser praised McBride as an “extraordinary new voice.”

The other finalists were Donna Tartt’s bestseller “The Goldfinch,” Jhumpa Lahiri’s Indian-American saga “The Lowland,” Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “Americanah,” Hannah Kent’s murder mystery “Burial Rites,” and Audrey Magee’s World War II story “The Undertaking.”

The annual award, formally called the Baileys Women’s Prize after its sponsor, is open to female writers in English from around the world. It was previously known as the Orange Prize.