DUBLIN - Lebanese author Rawi Hage has won the 100,000 euro (155,000 dollar) International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the world's richest prize for a work of fiction, organisers announced Thursday.

Canadian-based Hage scooped the award for his book "De Niro's Game" about best friends from childhood who have grown to adulthood in war-torn Beirut. His book describes the agonising choice they must make between staying in the city and consolidating power through crime; or going into exile abroad, alienated from the only existence they have known.

IMPAC's judges described it as "an eloquent, forthright and at times beautifully written" first novel.
"Ringing with insight and authenticity the novel shows how war can envelop lives - how one doesn't have much choice in such circumstances. It's a game where there are no winners, just degrees of survival," said a statement from the international panel of judges who chose it from a shortlist of eight books. "His unflinching gaze pours the blood-red sands of our moral dilemmas over every page. It's a wonderful debut and a deserving winner." Hage was born in Beirut and lived through nine years of civil war before emigrating to Canada. "I am a fortunate man," he said after he was presented with the award by Dublin's Lord Mayor councillor Paddy Bourke. "After a long journey of war, displacement and separation, I feel that I am one of the few wanderers who is privileged enough to have been rewarded, and for that I am very grateful."

The only literary award which pays more than IMPAC is the Nobel Prize, which rewards a body of work rather than a single book. The IMPAC award, sponsored by a Florida-based management productivity
company whose European headquarters is in Dublin, is unique in that the 137 books originally nominated for the prize were chosen by 162 public libraries in 45 countries.

First awarded in 1996, the prize was established to underline the Irish capital's stature as a literary centre.