man booker prize

Paul Beatty Wins the 2016 Man Booker Prize for The Sellout

Man Book Prize Shortlist - Photocall
Photo: Tristan Fewings/Getty Images

We know what you’re going to put on your fall reading list now. Paul Beatty, the author of the racial satire The Sellout, has won the prestigious 2016 Man Booker Prize. He triumphed over five other nominated authors for the honor — Deborah Levy for Hot Milk, Graeme Macrae Burnet for His Bloody Project, Ottessa Moshfegh for Eileen, David Szalay for All That Man Is, and Madeleine Thien for Do Not Say We Have Nothing — and, according to the Guardian, the unanimous decision was reached by the judges after a few hours of deliberation. Beatty’s win for the novel makes him the first American author to win the prize in its 48-year history. Historian Amanda Foreman, who chaired this year’s committee, described The Sellout as a “novel for our times” that was “able to take satire, which is a very difficult subject and not always done well, and [plunge] it into the heart of contemporary American society with a savage wit.” Break out those Kindles or load up your Amazon carts, everyone.

Paul Beatty Wins the 2016 Man Booker Prize