Rabih Alameddine has won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for his novel The Wrong End of the Telescope.

The PEN/Faulkner Foundation made the announcement in a news release, with Louis Bayard, its awards committee chair, saying, “This year’s judges have done the seemingly impossible. They have found a ‘first among equals’ in a diverse slate of five extraordinary titles. We look forward to celebrating Rabih Allameddine’s exquisite novel, as well as the enduring work of his fellow finalists."

Alameddine’s novel, published last September by Grove, follows a Lebanese doctor working at a refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece, who forms a bond with an ailing Syrian woman. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus wrote, “No one writes fiction that is more naturally an extension of lived life than this master storyteller.”

Prize judges Eugenia Kim, Rebecca Makkai, and Rion Amilcar Scott wrote of the book, “In a year of stunning and important fiction, this work stands as a particular achievement: a novel that cries out to be heard and that teaches us, both intrinsically and extrinsically, what story can do.”

Alameddine said he was “beyond excited” to win the prize.

“This is such an honor,” he said. “No writer can look at the list of books that have won the PEN/Faulkner Award and not be humbled and honored to have their book listed among them.”

He struck a similar chord on Twitter, writing, “OMG! I’m honored and flattered and I haven’t stopped giggling!”

Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.