Hungarian writer wins Manes-Sperber prize

(AFP PHOTO / JOHN MACDOUGALL)

The Hungarian writer Peter Esterhazy has won the Manes-Sperber literary prize.

The 7,300-euro award will be presented by Austrian Culture Minister Claudia Schmied on October 27.

Esterhazy, 59, is descended from an old aristocratic family dispossessed under communist rule.

He is best known for his 2000 book "Celestial Harmonies", which traces the family history from the time of the Austro-Hungarian empire to the rise of communism.

In 2005 Esterhazy published a new version of the book entitled "Revised Edition" after learning his father worked as an informant for the secret police during the communist era.

He is regarded as one of the leading figures in modern Hungarian literature and won the country's highly-regarded Kossuth Prize in 1996.