Frankfurt - Author Uwe Teller won on Monday the German Book Prize, an annual, 25,000-euro (34,000-dollar) award for German-speaking novels, the judges announced in Frankfurt.

He gained the award for The Tower, a monumental work describing the collapse of communist East Germany two decades ago.

Teller, 39, a medical doctor, was born in the eastern city of Dresden and jailed in 1989 for "political unreliability" just before communism ended.

The prize is awarded by the German Book Trade Federation every year, two days before the start of the Frankfurt Book Fair, the world's premier book publishing event.

The other novels and authors on the shortlist were Adam and Evelyn (Ingo Schulze), Abolition of Species (Dietmar Dath), Dark Ship (Sherko Fatah), Swim Home (Rolf Lappert) and Two Meet (Iris Hanika).

Modelled on the Man Booker Prize in Britain, the award is meant to identify novels that would appeal to a wide range of readers and perhaps generate international interest.

German fiction is often intensely local or personal in its focus. Some novelists even write books without a plot.

Critics this year praised Teller's books, saying they were not easy reading, with long sentences, metaphors and a poetic style. Some said he may one day be recognized as a "great German author."

Teller, who also writes poetry, now lives with his wife and their child in Freiburg in south-western Germany.

In just three years since it was founded, the Book Prize has been accepted by the media as the German-speaking world's most noticed literary award.

However some shy authors repulsed by the pop-star style celebrity have complained this year about the fuss.

The panel of judges select a "long list" of 20 titles, then announce a shortlist of six by mid-September. (dpa)