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

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

Bookies had considered Beatty a longshot. 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) 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".
Paul Beatty becomes the first American author to win the Man Booker Prize for his novel The Sellout.