Paul Beatty wins first Man Booker Prize for the USA

London: Novelist Paul Beatty, on Tuesday, became the first American to be awarded the Man Booker Prize when he won the award for his novel ‘The Sellout’.

Written as satire on race set in South Los Angeles, ‘The Sellout’ is the fourth book of Beatty.

Surprised by the announcement, he said, “I am not going to get all dramatic, writing saved my life or anything like that but writing has given me a life.”

Beatty’s novel had been selected from the six shortlisted titles. “I can’t tell you guys how long of a journey this has been for me,” he said while thanking his agent, girlfriend and editor.

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What else he said:

• The winner in a chocked voice said, “I did not want to write — I hate writing but was prompted by Creative Capital, a non-profit organisation that provides funds directly to artists and writers, to undertake something, and that something was the genesis of ‘The Sellout’.”

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Man Booker Prize:

• The Man Booker Prize is one of the most prestigious literary prizes.
• It comes with a cash prize of about $61,000.
• The award was first presented in 1969, but Americans were not eligible until 2014.
• A Jamaican-born writer Marlon James, who lives and teaches in Minnesota, had bagged this prize for his novel ‘A Brief History of Seven Killings’ in 2015.

Beatty’s book ‘The Sellout’ had also been the winner of 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction.