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In his acceptance speech, Saunders, 58, noted
that "we live in a strange time," adding he saw the key question
of the era being whether society responded to events with
"exclusion and negative projection and violence," or "with
love."
Saunders was the second consecutive American writer to win the
prize, after the rules were changed in 2014 to allow authors of
any book written in English and published in the U.K. to
compete.
His novel, set in 1862, a year into the American Civil war, is a
blend of historical accounts and imaginative fiction, which sees
Lincoln's son Willie, who died in the White House at age 11, in
"Bardo" - a Tibetan form of purgatory.
The judging panel, led by author and member of Britain's House
of Lords Lola Young, praised the "deeply moving" book, saying it
was "utterly original".
Saunders was presented with his award by the Duchess of
Cornwall.
Last year, American Paul Beatty became the first American to win
the award, for his novel “The Sellout,” a biting satire on race
relations in the United States.
Other previous winners have included this year's Nobel
Prize-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, Salman Rushdie, Iris
Murdoch and Canadian writer Margaret Atwood.
The award was previously open only to writers from Britain,
Ireland, Zimbabwe or countries in the British Commonwealth. The
winner receives a 50,000 pound ($65,000) cash prize.
(This story has been corrected to make clear Duchess of Cornwall
presented award)
(Reporting by Mark Hanrahan in London; Additional reporting by
Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Cooney)
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