Daniyal Mueenuddin, seen in Rahimyar Khan, Pakistan, in 2009, has won the $20K Story Prize for his debut short fiction collection In Other Rooms, Other Wonders. (Nahal Toosi/Associated Press)A book of tales exploring Pakistan's complex evolution from its feudal past has won the $20,000 US Story Prize, the annual literary honour celebrating the short fiction genre.

Pakistani-American author Daniyal Mueenuddin received the prize in New York Wednesday night for his debut work, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders.

"Each story, on its own, shines," the prize's three-member jury said in its citation.

"Layered together, there is a celebration of the beauty of the landscape, humour in the everyday, the irrefutable power of family and a lingering sadness for all who have not gotten quite what they wanted."

In Other Rooms, Other Wonders features eight short stories exploring the interconnected worlds of a wealthy old Pakistani landowner, his household, servants, tenants and his extended family and associates as they navigate a changing, contemporary Pakistan.

Mueenuddin's book was also a finalist for the 2009 National Book Awards and landed on a host of year-end "best of" lists, including those at Time magazine, Publishers Weekly, The Guardian, The Economist and The New York Times.

His co-finalists for the Story Prize, Victoria Petterson (Drift) and Wells Tower (Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned), received $5,000 each.

Founded in 2004, the Story Prize celebrates excellence in the short story genre, for titles written in English and published in the U.S.

Canadian writer Vincent Lam was a nominee in 2008 for his Giller Prize-winning book Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures.

Past winners have included Edwidge Danticat, Patrick O'Keeffe, Mary Gordon, Jim Shepard and Tobias Wolff.

With files from The Associated Press