LONDON (AP) – Alan Hollinghurst’s novel, “The Line of Beauty,” a tale of a young man who becomes caught up in a world of privilege, on Tuesday won the Man Booker Prize, Britain’s most prestigious literary award.

Hollinghurst beat out five other finalists for the award.

“It’s very amazing to me that the long, solitary process of writing a novel should lead to a moment like this,” Hollinghurst said in accepting the prize.

The Man Booker Prize, which comes with a $90,000 check, is open to writers from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth of former British colonies.

Hollinghurst’s novel, set in 1980s London, tells the story of Nick Guest, who takes a room in the home of a wealthy political family.

This year’s six-book shortlist had prompted some criticism for its exclusion of literary heavyweights like V.S. Naipaul and Muriel Spark.

Chris Smith, the Labour Party lawmaker who headed the judging panel, praised the short-listed novels when they were revealed, but said he hadn’t been impressed by the year’s output.

“Of the books submitted, I have to say quite a number were not very good,” he said.