Priest abuse novel wins honour

The book was praised by the jury for tackling a delicate subject

A book about sex abuse scandals in the Catholic Church has won Canada's main literary award, the Giller Prize.

Linden MacIntyre, an investigative journalist who wrote the novel, dedicated his award to "priests and nuns struggling to do their jobs".

He added there has been "a failure of leadership" in the Church.

The Bishop's Man tells the story of a priest charged with stamping out sex abuse scandals before they become public knowledge.

MacIntyre, who works for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, was awarded a prize of 47,000 Canadian Dollars (£27,000).

The jury said it was a "brave" novel, "conceived and written with impressive delicacy and understanding".

Past winners of the Giller, which was created in 1994 in memory literary journalist Doris Giller, have included Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro.

The prize exclusively honours the best in Canadian fiction writing.