DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) – American writer Edward P. Jones, who won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his first novel, “The Known World,” received one of Europe’s richest literary prizes Wednesday in recognition of the same work.

In a ceremony at Dublin City Hall, Jones collected the annual IMPAC Dublin Literary Award along with a check for $120,000 for his novel, which took him a decade to write.

Set in pre-Civil War Virginia, “The Known World” tells an epic, fact-based tale centered on the fictional Henry Townsend, a black man who owns slaves and aspires to be “a better master than any white man he had ever known.” Critics internationally have praised “The Known World” for a multilayered portrayal of families and a wider society struggling with the moral contradictions of slavery. It won the Pulitzer last year.

A five-judge panel selected Jones’ work as the best among a list of 147 novels, which had been nominated by 185 libraries from 51 countries worldwide. Libraries in four U.S. cities – Minneapolis, Portland, Ore., Richmond, Va., and Springfield, Ill. – nominated “The Known World.”

“I’m still amazed that out of dozens and dozens of people, they chose me,” said Jones, 54, who lives in Arlington, Va.

Jones’ “The Known World” also won last year’s National Book Critics Circle prize. In the decade he spent writing the novel, he lost his job as a proofreader for the trade publication Tax Notes, and lost touch with much of the publishing world. When he finished his manuscript, he was so embarrassed by the delay that he notified his agent by letter, instead of by telephone.

Each qualifying novel for the IMPAC award had to be published in English in 2004. Last year’s IMPAC winner was “This Blinding Absence of Light” by Moroccan-born novelist Tahar Ben Jelloun.

The award, launched in 1996, is run by Dublin’s public libraries and largely financed by a Connecticut-based management consultancy, Improved Management Productivity and Control. IMPAC has its European headquarters in Dublin.