Anna Burns won the prestigious Man Booker Prize for fiction Tuesday for “Milkman,” a vibrant, violent story about men, women, conflict and power set during Northern Ireland’s years of Catholic-Protestant violence, The Washington Post reported.

Burns is the first writer from Northern Ireland to win the 50,000-pound ($66,000) prize, which is open to English-language authors from around the world. She received her trophy from Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, during a black-tie ceremony at London’s medieval Guildhall.

The 56-year-old Belfast-born novelist said she was “stunned” to have won. Burns said her books took a long time to complete, and she has often struggled financially since her first novel, “No Bones,” was released in 2001.

“I just wait for my characters to come and tell me their stories, and I can’t write until they do,” Burns told reporters. “Also, as with a lot of writers, they don’t earn much money. So that gets in the way of the creativity.” Burns said that with her prize money, “I will clear my debts and live on what’s left.”