US author AM Homes took home this year's Women's Prize for Fiction for her book "May We Be Forgiven" beating the likes of Zadie Smith, Kate Atkinson and Hilary Mantel.

US author AM Homes sent out quite a ripple in the literary world Wednesday night when her book "May We Be Forgiven" won her this year's Women's Prize for Fiction, beating the likes of Zadie Smith, Kate Atkinson and Hilary Mantel. She became the fifth American in a row to be named winner of the $46,000 prize, formerly known as the Orange.

"It was so fresh and so funny - darkly funny - and so unexpectedly moving," Miranda Richardson, who chaired the judging panel, said of the book. "It is a book where we all found ourselves laughing out loud on trains or wherever we were reading. You're laughing in kind of fear or horror as much as anything else. It's relentless, but great."

The other novels on the shortlist were Zadie Smith's "NW", Kate Atkinson's "Life After Life", Barbara Kingsolver's "Flight Behaviour", Hilary Mantel's "Bring Up The Bodies" and Maria Semple's "Where'd You Go, Bernadette." The judging panel included the BBC correspondent Razia Iqbal, fellow journalist Rachel Johnson, the author Jojo Moyes and the writer Natasha Walter.

The prize was renamed after Orange, the main sponsor of the prize backed out and the Guardian reports that next year the prize will be named Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction after the liquor maker agreed to become the main sponsor of the prize.