"This award is not just for me," the author, who identifies as nonbinary, told the audience at the award ceremony in Frankfurt.

"I think the jury chose this text also to send a signal against hatred, for love and for the fight of all those people who are being suppressed because of their bodies," they said.

After De l'Horizon was announced as the winner for their debut novel Blutbuch (Blood book), the mustachioed author took to the stage and sang a song before using an electric razor to shave off their hair.

The jury said it had been "inspired" by the novel. "With tremendous creative energy, the nonbinary narrator of Kim de l'Horizon's novel [...] searches for a language of their own," it said.

The German Book Prize honors the best German-language novel of the year and comes with a 25,000 euro (US$24,600) prize.

The award ceremony traditionally precedes the start of the Frankfurt Book Fair, the world's largest, which runs from Wednesday until Sunday.

Iran has been rocked by a wave of protests since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini last month, days after she was arrested by the morality police in Tehran for allegedly violating Iran's strict dress code for women.

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