TORONTO — Linden MacIntyre, an investigative journalist who wrote a novel about sexual abuse by Catholic priests, has won one of Canada's most prestigious literary awards.

MacIntyre won the Scotiabank Giller Prize for his book "The Bishop's Man" on Tuesday night.

The novel tells the story of a Roman Catholic priest tasked with stamping out sex abuse scandals before they go public. The book is set in Antigonish, Nova Scotia — a place MacIntyre calls one of Canada's most religious communities.

The book is especially timely, coming out shortly before Canada was rocked by a high-profile scandal that saw a Bishop, charged with overseeing settlements to sex abuse victims, arrested for possessing child pornography.

The $47,000 prize, created in 1994, honors Canadian fiction. Past winners have included Margaret Atwood, Mordecai Richler and Alice Munro.

The judges this year included Canadian novelist Alistair MacLeod, U.S. novelist Russell Banks and British biographer Victoria Glendinning.

On the Net: Giller Prize: www.scotiabankgillerprize.ca