Paris - Afghan-born Atiq Rahimi was on Monday named winner of France's most prestigious literary prize, the Prix Goncourt, for his novel Synge Sabour.

The title of the novel - Rahimi's fourth, but the first to be written in French - is taken from the Persian name of a magic black stone that represents patience and which absorbs all suffering and pain.

The book is in the form of a monologue of an Afghan woman addressing her soldier-husband who lies in a coma in their house.

The monologue ultimately becomes an outcry for all Afghan women - indeed, all women - about wishing to become free of domestic, social and religious oppression and a tirade against the man whom she is nursing.

Rahimi was born in the Afghan capital Kabul in 1962. He fled the strife-torn country in 1984, living in Pakistan for one year before receiving political asylum in France. He currently has double French-Afghani citizenship.

Two of Rahimi's previous novels, written in Persian, have been translated into English - the best-selling Earth and Ashes (translated in 2002) and The Thousand Rooms of Dreams and Fears (2006).

A film student and critic in Afghanistan, Rahimi himself directed the film version of Earth and Ashes, which came out under its Afghan title, Khakestar-o-khak.

It garnered a number of international prizes, including best director for Rahimi at the Bratislava and Flanders film festivals and the Regard Original award at the 2004 Cannes festival. (dpa)