US author Marilynne Robinson was on Wednesday awarded the £30 000 Orange Prize for Fiction, which honours work by female writers from around the world.

At a ceremony in London, the judges described the Pulitzer-prize winner's latest novel 'Home' as "exquisitely crafted".

The book — Robinson's third novel in nearly 30 years — tells the story of Jack, the prodigal son who returns home after 20 years looking for refuge and hoping to make peace with his past.

"A kind, wise, enriching novel, exquisitely crafted. We were unanimously agreed — it is a profound work of art," said panel chairperson Fi Glover.

Robinson fought off competition from first-time novelist Samantha Harvey, Americans Ellen Feldman and Samantha Hunt, Irish writer Deirdre Madden and Pakistani-British author Kamila Shamsie to win the 14th Orange prize.

Jonathan Ruppin, of Foyles bookshop, described Robinson as "simply one of the outstanding prose stylists of recent years".

"She will undoubtedly come to be seen as essential as (Vladimir) Nabokov or (Josef) Conrad," he said.

Robinson won the Pulitzer and the National Book Critics Circle Award for her novel 'Gilead' in 2004. Her first novel, 'Housekeeping' in 1981, was also critically acclaimed.

She has in addition written two works of non-fiction, 'Mother Country' and 'The Death of Adam'.

Asked about the value of a woman-only prize, the author said it could act as a "corrective to a tendency to treat books written by men more seriously than books written by women".

This was less of a problem now than in the past, she said, adding that the quality of the Orange prize meant "good attention is brought to good books".