The Man Booker Prize has traditionally been a legacy of the British, with only those who are citizens of the Commonwealth countries, Ireland, and Zimbabwe eligible for the award. Ever since the boundaries of the Booker extended in 2013 to include any English-language novel that has been published in the UK, sceptics were worried that American writers would sweep the floor of the Booker. But it took three years and one extremely compelling narrative for an American to make his mark finally be felt. Paul Beatty was awarded the Man Booker Prize for his stellar tragic-comedy racial satire The Sellout.

The book was well received and had also won itself several laurels, like the National Book Critics Circle Award, even before it was nominated for the Booker this year.

Although winning the Booker is unlike any other literary award since with it comes international fame, repute, recognition and a cheque of £50,000, ($62,150, €56,133). In addition, Beatty also received a designer bound edition of his book and a further £2,500 for being shortlisted.

Amanda Foreman, 2016 Chair of judges, said on Beatty’s win, ‘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.’ 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.

The Sellout is a scathing attack on the racial relations in the United States, and Beatty has relied on satire and excesses to narrate a no-holds-barred approach demonizing the ugliness of racial and economic inequality in America. 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.’