France's David Diop wins International Booker with WWI novel

Diop is the first French winner of the prize, awarded for a book translated into English and published in Britain or Ireland. Photo: Handout

French novelist David Diop on Wednesday won the prestigious International Booker Prize for books translated into English with his World War I-set novel At Night All Blood Is Black.

The Paris-born writer became the first French winner of the prize, awarded for a book translated into English and published in Britain or Ireland, in a ceremony broadcast online from Coventry Cathedral in central England.