Ruth Ozeki’s ‘complete joy’ of a novel wins Women’s prize for fiction

Ruth Ozeki, described by Mary Ann Sieghart, the chair of the judging panel, as a ‘truly original and masterful storyteller’. Photograph: David Hartley/Rex/Shutterstock

Ruth Ozeki’s fourth novel, The Book of Form and Emptiness, has won the Women’s prize for fiction.

The novelist, film-maker and Zen Buddhist priest takes the £30,000 award for a book that “stood out for its sparkling writing, warmth, intelligence, humour and poignancy”, according to the chair of judges, Mary Ann Sieghart.