PTI

London, May 20: Indian-origin writer Indra Sinha's book 'Animal's People', based on the Bhopal gas tragedy, has been adjudged this year's best book in Europe and South Asia by the Commonwealth.

Canada's Lawrence Hill won the top Commonwealth Writers' Prize for her ''The Book of Negroes'', a novel about forgotten story of 18th Century Africans. Hill has been named the winner of the best book award.

Bangladesh's Tahmima Anam bagged the award for best first book for 'A Golden Age', a fictionalised account of her country's war for independence in 1971.

South African Minister of Arts and Culture Z Pallo Jordan presented a cheque for 10,000 pounds (USD19,600) to Hill and a cheque for 5,000 pounds (USD9,800) to Anam at the Franschhoek Literary Festival in South Africa, it was officially announced in London.

Besides winning the prize, Hill will travel to London to meet with the Head of the Commonwealth, Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, accompanied by Commonwealth Foundation Director, Dr Mark Collins.

He will also meet Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma at the Commonwealth's Marlborough House headquarters and give a public reading from his award winning book.

The Commonwealth Writers' Prize, an increasingly valued and sought after award for fiction, is presented annually by the Commonwealth Foundation.

The Prize aims to reward the best Commonwealth fiction written in English, by both established and new writers, and to take their works to a global audience, thereby increasing appreciation of and building understanding between cultures.