IN THE year of one of the most important presidential elections of recent time, a book that takes the reader around the US to meet ordinary people negotiating life in an extraordinary country has won the 35th Age Book of the Year Award.

Don Watson's American Journeys recounts his travels on rail and road, and gives a fresh perspective on the world's only superpower through the stories of its citizens he met. As a picture of the US, it is by no means flattering but it is always intelligent, compassionate and readable. The award is worth $20,000. Watson also won the non-fiction prize.

Winners of book awards (from left) Don Watson (book of the year and non-fiction), Jan Harry (poetry) and Tim Winton Credit:Andrew De La Rue

Tim Winton won the fiction award, worth $10,000, for Breath, his first novel in seven years. It is the first time he has won a Victorian literary prize. J. S. Harry won the $10,000 Dinny O'Hearn poetry prize for Not Finding Wittgenstein.

The prizes were presented last night at the opening of the Melbourne Writers Festival at the Melbourne Town Hall. It was not unfamiliar territory for Watson  he won the Book of the Year award in 2002 for Recollections of a Bleeding Heart, his account of Paul Keating as prime minister.