Kingsolver wins Orange Prize for Fiction

LONDON, June 10 (UPI) -- U.S. author Barbara Kingsolver won the Orange Prize for Fiction for her novel "The Lacuna" at a ceremony in London Wednesday night, organizers said.

Daisy Goodwin, who chaired the panel, said the 55-year-old author's book demonstrated "breathtaking scale," the BBC reported.

The novel follows a man and his mother, who go to work for Mexican muralist Diego Rivera and his wife, painter Frida Kahlo.

The $44,000 Orange Prize is bestowed each year upon one female author.

Other finalists for this year's award were Rosie Alison for "The Very Thought of You;" Attica Locke for "Black Water Rising;" Lorrie Moore for "A Gate at the Stairs;" Hilary Mantel for "Wolf Hall" and Monique Roffey for "The White Woman on the Green Bicycle," the BBC said.