China Miéville has won the £10,000 Goldsmiths Prize for 'The Rouse,' a 1,264-page epic announced at a ceremony in London on Wednesday.

The Guardian reports the novel, 20 years in the writing, is part paranormal thriller and part historical saga moving through decades of British imperial and cold war history.

It is the longest novel to take the prize since it launched in 2013 to reward fiction that 'breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of the novel form.'

Miéville has called it 'the defining book of my life' in an interview with the New Statesman, which co-founded the prize with Goldsmiths, University of London.

The prize's judges, chaired by novelist Francis Spufford, said it 'seemed only right' to reward the book that, in terms of ambition, bold use of history, linguistic experiment and sheer scale, 'broke most explosively with expectation.'

Judge Hari Kunzru called it 'a monumental work' in which Miéville 'sets himself the daunting task of describing phenomena that are indescribable,' adding that in a time when much fiction 'colours inside the lines,' this 'enormous, exuberant, overflowing book' shows the novel can contain multitudes.

Tanjil Rashid, the New Statesman's culture editor, said of all the awards Miéville has won, 'this is the prize he was destined for.'

The novel opens in London in 1973 and follows Maur, whose son Ewan dies in an apparent suicide at an army barracks.

Her search for the truth — alongside bereaved families, a journalist and the British state's covert interest in the paranormal — runs alongside the story of a soldier with experience of supernatural forces.

In a Guardian review cited in the pack, Stuart Kelly called it 'maximalist, dense, disorienting and discomfiting,' arguing Miéville deserves comparison with Roberto Bolaño and Mircea Cărtărescu, and 'very, very frightening' in places.

It beat five shortlisted books, including Polly Barton's 'What Am I, a Deer?' and Keith Ridgway's 'Dooneen.'

The win adds a different kind of honour to a shelf already holding Hugo, World Fantasy and Arthur C Clarke awards, plus a Guggenheim fellowship, for an author known for 'Perdido Street Station,' 'The City & The City' and 'Embassytown' — and, per the Guardian, the 2024 novel co-written with Keanu Reeves, 'The Book of Elsewhere.'

Now in its 14th year, the Goldsmiths Prize is open to novels by writers from or resident in the UK and Ireland; last year's winner was CD Rose for 'We Live Here Now,' and previous winners include Rachel Cusk, Eimear McBride and Ali Smith.