Man Booker Prize: Paul Beatty wins accolade for The Sellout in first win for US author

Posted

Paul Beatty's The Sellout, a stinging satire of race and class in the United States, has won the Man Booker Prize, marking the first time an American has taken the prestigious fiction award.

Key points: Judges say Beatty's book "eviscerates every social taboo"

Beatty is first American to win prize, which was opened up to writers outside Ireland and the Commonwealth in 2014

Received $80,000 prize from Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall

Judges said Beatty's provocative book was a satire to rank with the classics, and as timely as the evening news.

Historian Amanda Foreman, who chaired the judging panel, said the book "plunges into the heart of contemporary American society, and with absolutely savage wit — the kind I haven't seen since [Jonathan] Swift or [Mark] Twain".

The Sellout is set in a rundown Los Angeles suburb called Dickens, where the residents include the last survivor of the Little Rascals and the book's narrator Bonbon — an African American man on trial at the US Supreme Court for attempting to reinstate slavery and racial segregation.

The book has been likened to the comedy of Richard Pryor and Chris Rock.

Foreman said The Sellout, which mixes pop culture, philosophy and politics with humour and anger, set out to "eviscerate every social taboo".

"This is a book that nails the reader to the cross with cheerful abandon," she said. "That is why the book works — because while you're being nailed, you're being tickled."

The five judges met for a marathon four hours on Tuesday to choose the winner from among six finalists, whittled down from 155 submissions. Foreman said the decision for Beatty's work was unanimous.

Beatty, 54, was awarded the 50,000 pound ($80,000) prize by Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Charles' wife, during a black-tie ceremony at London's medieval Guildhall.

Beatty pipped Canadian favourite for Booker win

Founded in 1969 and previously open only to writers from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth, the Booker expanded in 2014 to include all English-language authors.

There were fears in Britain's literary world that the change would bring US dominance to a prize whose previous winners include Salman Rushdie, Ben Okri, Margaret Atwood and Hilary Mantel.

But the 2014 and 2015 winners were Australia's Richard Flanagan and Jamaica's Marlon James.

One other American novel was among the finalists: Ottessa Moshfegh's bleak character study Eileen.

Bookies had considered Beatty a longshot.

The favourite was Canada's Madeleine Thien for Do Not Say We Have Nothing, the story of two families roiled by China's tumultuous history during the 20th century.

The other contenders were Graeme Macrae Burnet's Scottish murder story His Bloody Project, Deborah Levy's tale of mother-child trauma Hot Milk, and All That Man Is — a portrait of masculinity in a fragmented Europe by Canadian-born British novelist David Szalay.

The prize, subject to intense speculation and a flurry of betting, usually brings the victor a huge boost in sales and profile.

Apart from Levy, a 2012 Booker finalist for Swimming Home, most of this year's contenders are relatively unknown, but Foreman said they were "the household names of the future".

AP

Topics: arts-and-entertainment, books-literature, awards-and-prizes, united-kingdom, united-states</s>The novel is a "shocking and unexpectedly funny" portrayal of his native Los Angeles, say the jury.

Paul Beatty on Tuesday became the first U.S. author to win the Man Booker Prize — the most prestigious English-language literary award — for his novel The Sellout.

The jury said the novel was a "shocking and unexpectedly funny" portrayal of his native Los Angeles, which employs satire to explore racial equality in a fictional neighbourhood.

"I can't tell you guys how long a journey this has been for me," the writer, overwhelmed with emotion, said as he received the award from Prince Charles's wife, Camilla.

"In his equally affectionate and bitterly ironic portrait of the city and its inhabitants, Paul Beatty dodges inherited views of race relations, solutions or assumptions," the jury said.

The author "presents through his beguilingly honest and well-intentioned hero an innocent's view of his corrupt world.”

The Sellout is Beatty's fourth novel and earlier this year it won the National Book Critics Circle Award in the United States.</s>This file photo taken on October 24, 2016 shows US author Paul Beatty posing for a photograph at a photo call in London on October 24, 2016....US author Paul Beatty became the first US author to win the Man Booker Prize for Fiction when he won the award on Tuesday October 25, 2016. PHOTO| AFP</s>As darkening clouds of disbelief continue to gather over the US, anything can now happen. We know that for certain; the great Bob Dylan insists on pretending that he did not win the Nobel Prize in Literature – he shares our communal irony, wise man that he is – while millions of Americans like to feel that Donald Trump is not really running for president and that his deranged outpourings are merely minor nightmares imposed on a society so badly behaved it deserves no better.

Into this ongoing moment of Wizard of Oz madness, as comedians struggle to keep apace with the latest affront to women and people of all races, comes The Man Booker 2016 winner Paul Beatty with a fantasy satire featuring a narrator named Me, who is a farmer intent on re-introducing slavery to a town called Dickens.

With all due respect to Beatty, the Los Angeles-born poet and novelist who has been awarded this year’s prize for The Sellout, well the result seems just that, a bit of a sellout with traces of “haven’t I read this before?”

Chances are you will have seen thematic similarities in TV shows and sketches, or in any number of screwball movie plots. Ho Hum.

The Man Booker judges did single out a great American novel, but it did not make the shortlist. More of that anon.

The problem with writing a no-holds-barred satire about race in America, as Beatty has done, is that the subject has been feeding comedians and sit-coms for generations. It is very funny in a way similar to having your swimsuit disintegrate in a public pool. Race is a topic that never goes away, ask Donald Trump.

Beatty’s fourth novel is indeed sort of funny, but for all the familiar gags, the outrage and the anger, readers may well feel like shouting “so tell us something we don’t know” .

Me the narrator is a farmer who enjoys surfing (it could only happen in California); he has a plan to re-introduce slavery. This is a sensitive subject and Beatty freely sprinkles his narrative with the word “nigger”, just to push his foot through the floor. Of course, it all ends in court; his plans have too many loopholes.

In 1994 maestro William Gaddis published another of his grand operatic satires, A Frolic of His Own; it too was a fourth novel and far funnier than The Sellout. In it a college lecturer, Oscar Crease, who was hit by a car, takes a court case. The problem is, it was his own car and it struck him while he was hotwiring it. That said, Gaddis’s third novel, Carpenter’s Gothic (1986), about a demented Vietnam war vet attempting to make money out of a TV preacher who faces disaster when a public baptism goes badly wrong, is also way better than The Sellout.

So the Man Booker has given us a both-barrels book intened to make Americans cry, cringe and/or giggle – and they have – and everyone else laugh pretty much as the world is currently guffawing at the US. There is also and will be individual readers who will fester with irritation at the obviousness of it all.

The Sellout won this year’s National Book Critics Circle Award. But as for Man Booker, it was time an American won; it seems so long ago, when in deepest summer, on July 27th to be exact, the 13-strong Man Booker longlist was announced and on it was a superb American novel, My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout. I can recall writing: “Strout won the Pulitzer Prize for Olive Kitteridge, she could well win the Man Booker with this one.”

She failed to make the shortlist and seemed to have left the field clear for Canadian Madeleine Thien with Do Not Say We Have Nothing, a powerful and earnest look at modern China’s political and cultural history. It is an epic; an important work, symphonic in methodology and deliberate. It is worthy, ambitious and will endure.

Her prose lacks the wicked glee of Graeme Macrae Burnet’s His Bloody Project, yet Thien, also shortlisted for the Giller Prize, the major literary award in Canada which will decided on November 7th, seemed the likely and deserving winner. But no, for the second year running the award has gone to a loud, unsubtle obvious novel. The Sellout, in common with last year’s admittedly far more violent Man Booker victor, A Brief History of Seven Killings by Jamaican Marlon James, has already done the rounds in the US literary review and awards circuit.

Both books were also published in the UK by One World, an independent London publisher which keeps a keen eye on successful US books.

It should also be noted that many commentators felt that South African-born, British-based Deborah Levy, who had returned to the literary scene after a 15-year silence with her deservedly 2011 Man Booker shortlisted Swimming Home, could win with Hot Milk. It is a glib, predictable performance in which 25-year-old Sofia, smart and sexually supercharged, never mind aware, has come to Spain while her ailing mother attends a crackpot clinic run by a shrewd guru.

It does crank up a gear when Sofia, an overwhelmingly knowing narrator, heads off to Athens to visit her father. He is now married to a much younger woman and the couple are at the mercy of a baby. The novel triumphs, belatedly on a poignant father-daughter exchange in a café. One strong scene does not a Man Booker win.

Levy’s claims were more justified than those of young American Ottessa Moshegh. Eileen, her slight calculating yarn, is a first-person narrative intended to shock in which an old woman looks back 50 years to her obsessive, foul-minded wayward self prior to escaping her home town, and those of Canadian-British David Szalay, whose All That Man Is is really a collection of ponderous stories, amounting to nine glimpses of the male experience.

Like it or not, and to be honest, few readers could seriously “love” The Sellout, it is a convenient, ready-to eat-novel true to our Kafkaesque times.

Madeleine Thien’s courageous title sounds somewhat optimistic. We may not have nothing, but we did not end up with as much as we could have had either she, or better still Macrae Burnet’s virtuoso menace, carried the night.

David Szalay (Canada-UK), All That Man Is (Jonathan Cape)

Madeleine Thien (Canada), Do Not Say We Have Nothing (Granta Books)

Virginia Reeves (US), Work Like Any Other (Scribner UK)

Elizabeth Strout (US), My Name Is Lucy Barton (Viking)

David Szalay (Canada-UK), All That Man Is (Jonathan Cape)

Madeleine Thien (Canada), Do Not Say We Have Nothing (Granta Books)</s>Paul Beatty has become the first American author to win the prestigious Man Booker Prize for his book “The Sellout”, a stinging satire of race and class in the United States.

Beatty’s work has drawn comparisons to both US comedian Chris Rock and literary giant Mark Twain.

Judges said Beatty’s provocative book was a satire to rank with the classics, and as timely as the evening news.

Historian Amanda Foreman, who chaired the judging panel, said the book “plunges into the heart of contemporary American society, and with absolutely savage wit – the kind I haven’t seen since [Jonathan] Swift or [Mark] Twain”.

“The Sellout” is set in a rundown Los Angeles suburb called Dickens, where the residents include the last survivor of the Little Rascals and the book’s narrator, Bonbon, an African-American man on trial at the US Supreme Court for attempting to reinstate slavery and racial segregation.

The book has been likened to the comedy of Richard Pryor and Chris Rock, and Beatty goes where many authors fear to tread. Racial stereotypes, offensive speech and police killings of black men are all subject to his scathing eye.

Beatty acknowledged that “The Sellout” was a hard book – both to read and to write – and would push readers out of their comfort zone.

“I knew people could misread the book really easily,” he told reporters.

“I think people get caught up in certain words and their brains lock, certain ideas and their brains lock.”

Beatty was awarded the £50,000 (55,000 euros) prize by Prince Charles’s wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, during a black-tie ceremony at London’s medieval Guildhall.

“I don’t want to get all dramatic, like writing saved my life,” said 54-year-old Beatty, who has written three previous novels. “But writing’s given me a life.

“I’m just trying to create space for myself – hopefully that creates space for others,” added the visibly emotional author as he accepted the prize.

Foreman said “The Sellout”, which mixes pop culture, philosophy and politics with humour and anger, sets out to “eviscerate every social taboo”.

“This is a book that nails the reader to the cross with cheerful abandon,” she said. “That is why the book works – because while you’re being nailed, you’re being tickled.”

The five judges met for a marathon four hours Tuesday to choose the winner from among six finalists, whittled down from 155 submissions. Foreman said the decision for Beatty’s work was unanimous.

Chris White, fiction buyer for bookstore chain Waterstone’s, called Beatty’s book “the most significant novel to have emerged in these strange and difficult times”.

Foreman said the book spoke to “the complexities that modern society is confronting now”, including cultural debates about racism, diversity and who has the right to tell certain stories.

Beatty said no single book could, or should, encapsulate the diversity of experience.

“We just need a bigger shelf,” he said. “Hopefully my winning this is a sign of that.”

Founded in 1969 and previously open only to writers from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth, the Booker expanded in 2014 to include all English-language authors.

There were fears in Britain’s literary world that the change would bring US dominance to a prize whose previous winners include Salman Rushdie, JM Coetzee, Peter Carey, Margaret Atwood and Hilary Mantel. But the 2014 and 2015 winners were Australia’s Richard Flanagan and Jamaica’s Marlon James.

One other American novel was among the finalists: Ottessa Moshfegh’s twist on the psychological thriller, “Eileen”.

Bookies had considered Beatty a longshot. The favourite was Canada’s Madeleine Thien for “Do Not Say We Have Nothing”, the story of two families struggling through China’s tumultuous history in the 20th century.

The other contenders were Graeme Macrae Burnet’s Scottish murder story “His Bloody Project”; Deborah Levy’s tale of mother-child trauma “Hot Milk”; and “All That Man Is”, a portrait of masculinity in a fragmented Europe by Canadian-born British novelist David Szalay.

The prize, subject to intense speculation and a flurry of betting, usually brings the victor a huge boost in sales and profile.

Apart from Levy, a 2012 Booker finalist for “Swimming Home”, most of this year’s contenders are relatively unknown. But Foreman called them “the household names of the future”. -AFP</s>American author Paul Beatty has won the 2016 Man Booker Prize, shutting out two Canadian finalists including heavy favourite Madeleine Thien.

Mr. Beatty’s racy and irreverent novel, The Sellout, won the £50,000 award ($81,000) during a gala event Tuesday in London’s Guildhall. He is the first American to win the prize, which was only open to U.S. authors in 2014. Previously only authors from Britain, the Commonwealth, Ireland and Zimbabwe were eligible. It’s now open to writers of any nationality, writing originally in English and published in the U.K.

Ms. Thien and Canadian-born David Szalay were among the six short-listed authors for their respective books, Do Not Say We Have Nothing and All That Man Is. Ms. Thien was considered the favourite with bookies giving her 2 to 1 odds of winning (Mr. Beatty’s odds were 6 to 1).

“This was one of the most extraordinary days of my life,” Ms. Thien said after the event. “I’m very happy. And I loved The Sellout. That was a book that really blew me away, such a courageous book, such a hard book. I have all the happiness in the world for Paul. I think it’s great.”

Ms. Thien, who has been in London since Sunday attending various Man Booker events, joked that “now I can actually rest.”

“I’ll catch up on everything and then back to the touring schedule. I still have a few more weeks of touring and then I’ll be able to have time for writing.”

She added that the year has been a whirlwind with winning the Governor General’s Award and being nominated for the Man Booker and Giller Prize. “I’m still on a bit of a high. I never thought I’d ever be here,” she said.

The Sellout is a fast-paced satire on American race and culture set in a forgotten and impoverished part of Los Angeles called Dickens which has been literally erased from the map to avoid further public embarrassment. The lead character, an African-American known as “Bonbon” or “Me” or “Sellout,” attempts to restore the town’s image by reintroducing slavery and segregation, all of which lands him in the U.S. Supreme Court. It has been called the first truly great satirical novel of the century and a comic masterpiece.

The Sellout “plunges into the heart of contemporary American society with an absolutely savage wit of the kind that some have not seen since [Jonathan] Swift or [Mark] Twain,” said Amanda Foreman, the chair of the Man Booker judges panel. “It is both funny and painful at the same time. And it is really a novel of our times.”

Mr. Beatty said he was overwhelmed by the prize.

“I was trying to use things like the civil rights movement, the legacy of Los Angeles, my mom, all kinds of things as like a stepping stone to get to another place,” he explained in a press conference after the ceremony. “And it’s hard to do. I think people get caught up on certain words and their brains lock. Or a certain theme and their brains lock.”

He added that writing has not come easily and that one professor told him to quit because she thought he wasn’t any good.

“I don’t like writing really. It’s hard. You got to sit down and it’s hard. I’m a perfectionist, I guess in some ways, and I get easily disgruntled and discouraged,” he said. Another professor encouraged him to keep at it. “His faith in me really just helped give me the momentum to keep going and to have some confidence.”

Awarding the prize to The Sellout could prove controversial because while the book has won wide acclaim in the U.S., it has received mixed reviews in Britain where some have called it too frenetic. Ms. Foreman acknowledged the book is a difficult read.

“I think that fiction should not be comfortable. I think the truth is rarely pretty and this is a book that nails the reader to the cross,” she said. The Sellout “is a high-wire act that [Mr. Beatty] pulls off with tremendous verve and energy. He never lets up or pulls his punches. And that’s extraordinarily courageous.”

The judges took into consideration the timeliness of the book too, she added, pointing to the Black Lives Matter movement in the U.S. which has spread to the U.K. The book touches on “the complexities that modern society is confronting now this year, last year, the year before.”</s>American author Paul Beatty has won the 2016 Man Booker Prize, shutting out two Canadian finalists including heavy favorite Madeleine Thien.

Mr. Beatty’s racy and irreverent novel, The Sellout, won the £50,000 award ($81,000) during a gala event Tuesday in London’s Guildhall. He is the first American to win the prize, which was only open to U.S. authors in 2014. Previously only authors from Britain, the Commonwealth, Ireland and Zimbabwe were eligible. It’s now open to writers of any nationality, writing originally in English and published in the UK.

Ms. Thien and Canadian-born David Szalay were among the six short-listed authors for their respective books; Do Not Say We Have Nothing and All That Man Is. Ms. Thien was considered the favorite with bookies giving her 2-1 odds of winning (Mr. Beatty’s odds were 6-1).

The Sellout is a fast-paced satire on American race and culture set in a forgotten and impoverished part of Los Angeles called Dickens which has been literally erased from the map to avoid further public embarrassment. The lead character, an African American known as “Bonbon”, or “Me” or “Sellout”, attempts to restore the town’s image by reintroducing slavery and segregation, all of which lands him in the U.S. Supreme Court. It has been called the first truly great satirical novel of the century and a comic masterpiece.

The Sellout “plunges into the heart of contemporary American society with an absolutely savage whit of the kind that some have not seen since [Jonathan] Swift or [Mark] Twain,” said Amanda Foreman, the chair of the Man Booker judges panel. “It is both funny and painful at the same time. And it is really a novel of our times.”

The choice could prove controversial because while the book has won wide acclaim in the US, it has received mixed reviews in Britain where some have called it too frenetic. Ms. Foreman acknowledged the book is a difficult read. “I think that fiction should not be comfortable. I think the truth is rarely pretty and this is a book that nails the reader to the cross,” she said. The Sellout “is a high-wire act that he pulls off with tremendous verve and energy. He never lets up or pulls his punches. And that’s extraordinarily courageous.”

The judges took into consideration the timeliness of the book too, she added, pointing to the Black Lives Matter movement in the US which has spread to the UK. The book touches on “the complexities that modern society is confronting now this year, last year, the year before.”</s>The book, a satire of race and class, marks the first time an American author has won the Man Booker Prize.

LONDON — Paul Beatty’s “The Sellout,” a stinging satire of race and class in the United States, won the Man Booker Prize on Tuesday — the first time an American has taken the prestigious fiction award.

Judges said Beatty’s provocative book was a satire to rank with the classics, and as timely as the evening news.

Historian Amanda Foreman, who chaired the judging panel, said the book “plunges into the heart of contemporary American society, and with absolutely savage wit — the kind I haven’t seen since (Jonathan) Swift or (Mark) Twain.”

“The Sellout” is set in a rundown Los Angeles suburb called Dickens, where the residents include the last survivor of the Little Rascals and the book’s narrator, Bonbon, an African-American man on trial at the U.S. Supreme Court for attempting to reinstate slavery and racial segregation.

The book has been likened to the comedy of Richard Pryor and Chris Rock, and Beatty goes where many authors fear to tread. Racial stereotypes, offensive speech and police violence are all subject to his scathing eye.

Beatty was awarded the 50,000 pound ($61,000) prize by Prince Charles’ wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, during a black-tie ceremony at London’s medieval Guildhall.

Beatty acknowledged that “The Sellout” was a hard book — both to read and to write.

“I don’t want to get all dramatic, like writing saved my life,” said 54-year-old Beatty, who has written three previous novels. “But writing’s given me a life.

“I’m just trying to create space for myself — hopefully that creates space for others,” he added.

Foreman said “The Sellout,” which mixes pop culture, philosophy and politics with humor and anger, sets out to “eviscerate every social taboo.”

“This is a book that nails the reader to the cross with cheerful abandon,” she said. “That is why the book works — because while you’re being nailed, you’re being tickled.”

The five judges met for a marathon four hours Tuesday to choose the winner from among six finalists, whittled down from 155 submissions. Foreman said the decision for Beatty’s work was unanimous.

Frances Gertler, web editor at the Foyles bookstore chain, called “The Sellout” a “brave and funny” book.

“It takes a bit of getting into, but once there you don’t want to leave,” she said.

Founded in 1969 and previously open only to writers from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth, the Booker expanded in 2014 to include all English-language authors.

There were fears in Britain’s literary world that the change would bring U.S. dominance to a prize whose previous winners include Salman Rushdie, Ben Okri, Margaret Atwood and Hilary Mantel. But the 2014 and 2015 winners were Australia’s Richard Flanagan and Jamaica’s Marlon James.

One other American novel was among the finalists: Ottessa Moshfegh’s twist on the psychological thriller, “Eileen”

Bookies had considered Beatty a longshot. The favorite was Canada’s Madeleine Thien for “Do Not Say We Have Nothing,” the story of two families roiled by China’s tumultuous history during the 20th century.

The other contenders were Graeme Macrae Burnet’s Scottish murder story “His Bloody Project”; Deborah Levy’s tale of mother-child trauma “Hot Milk”; and “All That Man Is,” a portrait of masculinity in a fragmented Europe by Canadian-born British novelist David Szalay.

The prize, subject to intense speculation and a flurry of betting, usually brings the victor a huge boost in sales and profile.

Apart from Levy, a 2012 Booker finalist for “Swimming Home,” most of this year’s contenders are relatively unknown. But Foreman called them “the household names of the future.</s>The narrator of "The Sellout," an African-American called "Bonbon" tries to put his Californian town back on the map, from which it has been officially removed, by re-introducing slavery and segregation in its high school.

The 289-page novel begins with "Bonbon" facing a hearing in the Supreme Court, looking back over the events that led up to that point.

The language is uncompromising and may offend some readers. So might some of the content - one old black film actor asks to become Bonbon's slave - as Beatty lampoons racial stereotypes. The protagonist's father is unjustly shot by police.

"This is a hard book. It was hard for me to write, it's hard to read," said a tearful Beatty immediately after winning the award at a ceremony at London's historic Guildhall.

"For me, it's just really gratifying that something that's important to me is also important for other people," he later told a news conference.

Chair of the five judges for the 50,000 pound ($60,900) prize Amanda Foreman said "The Sellout" had been a unanimous choice, reached after a meeting lasting some four hours.

"It plunges into the heart of contemporary American society with absolutely savage wit of the kind I haven't seen since Swift or Twain," she said.

"It manages to eviscerate every social nuance, every sacred cow, while making us laugh and also making us wince ... It is really a novel for our times."

Asked about the language, Foreman said, "Paul Beatty has said being offended is not an emotion. That's his answer to the reader," Foreman said.

"The Sellout" is 54-year-old Beatty's fourth novel. He has also edited an anthology of African-American humor.

It was publisher Oneworld's second Man Booker victory after winning the 2015 prize for "A Brief History of Seven Killings" by Jamaican Marlon James.

Beatty said he would not have written the book had his partner not persuaded him to apply for a grant that allowed him time to complete the book.

"I don't like writing," he said. "I'm a perfectionist in some ways and I get easily disgruntled and discouraged with what I'm doing."

Apart from the 50,000 pound prize, each of the six shortlisted authors wins 2,500 pounds ($3,045) winning the Man Booker can have a major impact on a writer's sales and readership. James told Reuters recently that winning the prize can have a "seismic" impact.

In its 48-year history, the prize has gone to authors including Salman Rushdie, Hilary Mantel and Margaret Atwood. Three years ago the rules were changed to cover any novel written in English, regardless of the writer's nationality, and published in Britain. Previously it was confined largely to authors from the Commonwealth.

Since January, the judges have read 155 novels before whittling the pile down to a "longlist" of 13 then a shortlist of six.

This year's shortlist comprised works by two Britons, a Briton born in Canada, a Canadian and two Americans.

Deborah Levy, whose "Hot Milk" was in the final six this year, has been on the shortlist before, while Ottessa Moshfegh's "Eileen" was her debut novel. ($1 = 0.8208 pounds)</s>Paul Beatty has won the Man Booker Prize with his novel The Sellout.

The win makes Beatty, 54, who teaches at Columbia University, the first American to be awarded the prize in its 48-year history.

Born in Los Angeles, California in 1962, Beatty left home at 17 to study at Boston University, later persuing creative writing and poetry at Brooklyn College, New York.

The Sellout, set in LA and which includes the fallout from the unjust shooting of an African-American at the hands of the police, was described by judges as a "novel of our times".

They added it "takes aim at racial and political taboos with wit, verve and a snarl".

The New York-based writer has previously told the Paris Review that he was "surprised" that everybody keeps calling The Sellout a comic novel, adding: "I'm not sure how I define it."

Published by independent publishers Oneworld – who also won in 2015 with Marlon James' A Brief History of Seven Killings – The Sellout was also handed the National Book Critics Circle Award.

It is Mr Beatty's fourth novel, following on from Slumberland, Tuff, and his 1996 debut The White Boy Shuffle, which explores gang culture in LA.

He has also published two books of poetry, Big Bank Take Little Bank and Joker, Joker, Deuce and in 2006 edited an anthology of African-American humour – Hokum.

Mr Beatty was not the favourite to win the prize, with Madeleine Thien's Do Not Say We Have Nothing and Graeme Macrae Burnet's His Bloody Project tipped to win.
Paul Beatty becomes the first American author to win the Man Booker Prize for his novel The Sellout.