Angolan author wins fiction prize

Agualusa divides his time between Portugal and Angola

The Book of Chameleons by Angolan journalist and author Jose Eduardo Agualusa has won this year's Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.

The author shares the £10,000 prize money with translator Daniel Hahn.

The prize celebrates a novel that has been translated into English and published in the UK in past year.

Boyd Tonkin, judge and literary editor of The Independent, called it "a delightful, moving and revealing novel about modern Africa".

"It is remarkable for its witty originality and profound humanity, and blessed by a captivating translation from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn," said Mr Tonkin.

Previous winners

The judging panel included celebrated author Ali Smith and translator David Constantine.

Agualusa and Hahn celebrated their success at a ceremony at London's National Portrait Gallery on Tuesday.

Founded in 1990, the Foreign Fiction Prize lapsed in 1995 but was revived in 2001, with the support of the Arts Council.

Previous winners include Milan Kundera's Immortality, Austerlitz, by WG Sebald, and last year's winner Out Stealing Horses, by Per Petterson - which was recently shortlisted for the Impac award.