American author David Guterson has been named the winner of the annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award. The awards are given by The Literary Review for the worst description of sex in literary work.

Other top contender for this award was Stephen King. Guterson was awarded for his novel "Ed King," a modern version of the fable of Oedipus, writes the BBC.

The BBC writes the offending passage in the book is introduced as "the part where a mother has sex with her son."

"Oedipus practically invented bad sex, so I'm not in the least bit surprised," Guterson said in response to his win.

The author could not attend the awards ceremony, organised at the In and Out Naval and Military Club in London. The publisher of his book collected the award on his behalf.

The award was initiated by journalist and author Auberon Waugh in 1993.

The avowed purpose of the award is to "draw attention to the crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel, and to discourage it."

Guterson's best-selling "Snow Falling on Cedars," was made into a film starring Sam Shepard and Ethan Hawke in 1999.

"Ed King," his fifth novel, takes Sophocles' tragedy Oedipus Rex (the title is a play on the original) and transports it to late 20th century Seattle, writes the BBC.

The story is about a boy who is given up for adoption and eventually becomes one of the world's most powerful men, killing his father and sleeping with his mother in the process.

The novel contains several pages of explicit intimate acts, which The Washington Post described as a "sweaty-palmed narrative."

Guterson gives details of an erotic massage, where the protagonist "massaged, kneaded, stretched, rubbed, pinched, flicked, feathered, licked, kissed, and gently bit her shoulders."

The judges, writes the BBC, were swayed by a passage that begins: "Ed stood with his hands at the back of his head, like someone just arrested, while she abused him with a bar of soap."

The scene concludes: "Then they rinsed, dried, dressed, and went to an expensive restaurant for lunch."

Haruki Murakami's "1Q84," "The Final Testament of the Holy Bible" by James Frey, Chris Adrian's "The Great Night" and Lee Child's "The Affair", were also in race for this year's award.

London