BERLIN (AFP-EJP)---One of Israel's best-known authors and outspoken peace activists, David Grossman, is to receive this year's prestigious German Book Trade Peace Prize, the association said Thursday.   

Grossman, 56, will be officially handed the prize, which includes an endowment of 25,000 euros (30,000 dollars), at an awards ceremony on October 10 during the Frankfurt Book Fair.
   

"The association and its members have chosen to honour one of Israel's foremost authors and an active supporter of reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians," the awarding committee said in a statement.   

"His books show that the spiral of violence, hatred and displacement in the Middle East can only be ended through listening, restraint and the power of the word," they said.

"In his novels, essays and stories, Grossman has consistently sought to understand and describe not only his own position, but also the opinions of those who think differently."   

Grossman's works -- which include "See Under: Love," which deals with the stories of children of Holocaust survivors, and "The Yellow Wind", observations on Arab-Israeli relations -- have been translated into several languages.   

The author joined with other writers in 2006 to demand a ceasefire in the Israeli-Lebanon conflict   

Only days later, his son was killed by a Hezbollah missile, an experience he described in his work "To the End of the Lan,"telling the story of a woman's journey through Israel. He wrote it after his son was killed in the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.