Alberta-born, New York City“based journalist Chrystia Freeland has won the 2013 National Business Book Award for her book Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else (Doubleday Canada). The prize, which comes with a cash award of $20,000, was handed out at a Tuesday luncheon at Toronto’s new Four Seasons Hotel.

Freeland’s book beat out Bernie Finkelstein’s memoir of the Canadian music industry, True North: A Life in the Music Business (McClelland & Stewart); Douglas Hunter’s corporate history of coffee giant Tim Hortons, Double Double: How Tim Hortons Became a Canadian Way of Life One Cup at a Time (HarperCollins Canada); and Amanda Lang’s business leadership book The Power of Why (HarperCollins Canada).

In a press release, the National Business Book Award (which is sponsored by PwC and the Bank of Montreal) said:

Plutocrats takes a reflective, insightful and well-researched look at the economic disparity that has emerged between the “super rich” “ a small number of immensely wealthy people “ and the rest of society. Freeland describes how this divide began and what it signifies for each side of the gap. She examines how the convergence of technology and globalization has created the greatest income gap of all time.

The jury that chose the book consisted of chair Roger Martin (dean of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management), Jane Cooney (founder of Books for Business), William Dimma (chairman emeritus of Home Capital Group), Peter Mansbridge, (host of CBC’s The National), Deirdre McMurdy (journalist and policy analyst), and Senator Pamela Wallin.

In March, Freeland’s book was named winner of this year’s Lionel Gelber Prize for best book on foreign affairs.