Guardian writer wins international book prize

The British author and Guardian contributor Linda Grant won the $50,000 (£27,000) Lettre Ulysses prize for the art of reportage at the weekend for her book The People on the Street: a Writer's View of Israel. The judges said the book was a "systematic and in-depth exploration of Jewish identity and its relationship with the state of Israel, a journey through an extraordinary and problematic society".

Grant is a former winner of the Orange prize and the Mind book of the year/Allan Lane award. Second and third placed were Erik Orsenna, from France, and Juanita León, from Colombia.