George Saunders becomes second ever American to win Man Booker Prize

Writer George Saunders has won this year's Man Booker Prize for his novel Lincoln in the Bardo - becoming only the second American to win.

The 58-year-old New Yorker was praised by the judges for his book which concentrates on a single night in the life of US President Abraham Lincoln as his dead 11-year-old son is buried.

The book's cast of characters also includes a series of spirits stuck in the bardo which is a transitional state between death and re-birth in Tibetan Buddhism and uses monologues, different narrators and historical quotations to tell their stories.

Lola, Baroness Young, who chaired the judging panel, said it was "an extraordinary piece of work" which juxtaposed Lincoln's "personal tragedy" with his "public life" during the American Civil War.

She said: "The form and style of this utterly original novel reveals a witty, intelligent, and deeply moving narrative.

"This tale of the haunting and haunted souls in the afterlife of Abraham Lincoln's young son paradoxically creates a vivid and lively evocation of the characters that populate this other world.

"Lincoln in the Bardo is both rooted in and plays with history and explores the meaning and experience of empathy."

This is Saunders' first novel after a string of critically acclaimed short stories and he was presented with the £50,000 prize at a ceremony at Guildhall tonight.

His win, following his fellow American Paul Beatty last year, is likely to send the book to the top of the best-seller charts.

Beatty's race relations satire, The Sellout, saw sales increase by 658% after his win with 360,000 copies sold in this country.

Read our review of Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders here