The Time We Have Taken by Steven Carroll (Fourth Estate) has won the Miles Franklin Literary Award, Australia's most prestigious literary prize, worth A$42,000 (about US$39,600).

"It's an extraordinary thrill and honour," Carroll said, as quoted by Bookseller & Publisher Magazine's Weekly Book Newsletter. The author added that it is "daunting to be joining a long list of authors whom you've either studied or admired for years."

The Time We Have Taken is the third in a trilogy and has not been published in the U.S.