American wins 2016 Man Booker Prize

American author, Paul Beatty has won the Man Booker Prize for his novel ‘The Sellout’, a caustic satire on United States’ racial politics. This makes him the first American to win one of the most coveted literary prizes in the world. The £50, 000 win was announced at a dinner at London’s Guildhall. Beatty said […]

American author, Paul Beatty has won the Man Booker Prize for his novel ‘The Sellout’, a caustic satire on United States’ racial politics. This makes him the first American to win one of the most coveted literary prizes in the world.

The £50, 000 win was announced at a dinner at London’s Guildhall. Beatty said as he accepted the award that writing has given him a life.

The historian Amanda foreman, who chaired this year’s judging panel said: “Fiction should not be comfortable. The truth is rarely pretty and this is a book that nails the reader to the cross with cheerful abandon…that is why the novel works.

“While you are being nailed, you are tickled. It is a high-wire act which he pulls off with tremendous verve and energy and confidence. He never once lets up or pulls his punches. This is somebody writing at the top of their game.”

Books contending for this year’s prize were ‘Eileen’ by Ottessa Moshfegh (US), ‘Do Not Say We Have Nothing’ by Madeleine Thien (Canada), ‘All That Man Is’ by David Szalay (Canada-UK), ‘His Bloody Project’ by Graeme Macrae Burnet (UK) and ‘Hot Milk’ by Deborah Levy (UK).

‘The Sellout’ was published by Oneworld, the same publishing company that represented last year’s winner, Marlon James.

Nigeria’s Ben Okri was awarded the same prize in 1991 for his third novel ‘The Famished Road.’