Author Maurice Gee has won top honours at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards.
His novel Blindsight won the Deutz Medal for Fiction or Poetry at an awards ceremony in Auckland on Monday night.
Judges described the book as a narrative tour de force, and say it is a worthy addition to the work of New Zealand's greatest living novelist.
The novel was also the joint winner of the Readers' Choice Award, along with Fiona Kidman's book, The Captive Wife.
Philip Simpson won the Montana Medal for Non Fiction for Pohutukawa and Rata: New Zealand's Iron-Hearted Trees.
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The judges described it as a valuable reference book with a strong environmental message.
