Australian writer Richard Flanagan is the winner of this year’s Man Booker Prize for Fiction for The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Knopf), announced today at aceremony in London.

He was chosen over fellow shortlisted authors Joshua Ferris (To Rise Again at a Decent Hour), Karen Joy Fowler (We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves), Howard Jacobson (J), Neel Mukherjee (The Lives of Others), and Ali Smith (How to be both). This is the first year the prize was open to U.S. authors as well, represented by Ferris and Fowler on the shortlist.

Flanagan is the recipient of £50,000 ($80,000), and will have a postmark created by Royal Mail in his honour.