The Sellout by Paul Beatty has been named winner of the 2016 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, and is the first American to win the prize in its 48 year history.
The Sellout is published by small independent publisher Oneworld, who had their first win in 2015 with Marlon James’ A Brief History of Seven Killings.
The 54-year-old New York resident, was born in Los Angeles - US authors became eligible in 2014.
The 2016 shortlist included two British, including Scottish writer Graeme Macrae Burnet, two US, one Canadian and one British-Canadian writer.
The Sellout is described as a "searing satire on race relations in contemporary America."
Amanda Foreman, 2016 Chair of judges, said: ‘The Sellout is a novel for our times.
"A tirelessly inventive modern satire, its humour disguises a radical seriousness.
"Paul Beatty slays sacred cows with abandon and takes aim at racial and political taboos with wit, verve and a snarl."
Though Beatty cites satirists Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut as formative influences, he remarked to The Paris Review that he was ‘surprised that everybody keeps calling this a comic novel… I’m not sure how I define it.’
This is the second consecutive Man Booker Prize success for independent publisher Oneworld, following Marlon James’ win with A Brief History of Seven Killings in 2015.
Amanda Foreman was joined on the 2016 panel of judges by Jon Day, Abdulrazak Gurnah, David Harsent and Olivia Williams.
The judges considered 155 books for this year’s prize, including a total of 11 call-ins.
In addition to his £50,000 prize and trophy, Beatty also receives a designer bound edition of his book and a further £2,500 for being shortlisted.
Last year’s winning novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James, has gone on to sell over 360,000 copies in the UK and Commonwealth, as well as 120,000 in the US.
Other recent winners have included Hilary Mantel (2012 and 2009), whose Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies have led to award-winning adaptations on stage and screen, and Julian Barnes (2011), whose The Sense of an Ending will soon be adapted for film.
This is the third year that the prize has been open to writers of any nationality, writing originally in English and published in the UK.
Previously, the prize was open only to authors from the UK & Commonwealth, Republic of Ireland and Zimbabwe.
The 2016 shortlist included two British, two US, one Canadian and one British-Canadian writer.
First awarded in 1969, the Man Booker Prize is recognised as the leading award for "high quality literary fiction written in English."
Iris Murdoch to JM Coetzee.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here