--- title: Paul Beatty's 'The Sellout' Wins the 2016 Man Booker Prize description: The winner of the 2016 Man Booker Prize was announced Tuesday. It was awarded to Paul Beatty for his novel The Sellout canonical: https://time.com/4545383/paul-beattys-the-sellout-wins-the-man-booker-prize/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-25T21:23:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T01:25:23.426Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Paul Beatty's 'The Sellout' Wins the 2016 Man Booker Prize og:description: He becomes the first American to win the prize og:url: https://time.com/4545383/paul-beattys-the-sellout-wins-the-man-booker-prize/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d4271dc6f042ffd/6988ab8ecd1bba7dc1702d69/the-sellout.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: BRITAIN-LITERATURE-MAN-BOOKER-PRIZE og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Paul Beatty's 'The Sellout' Wins the 2016 Man Booker Prize twitter:description: He becomes the first American to win the prize twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d4271dc6f042ffd/6988ab8ecd1bba7dc1702d69/the-sellout.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Paul Beatty's _The Sellout_ Wins the Man Booker Prize by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Oct 25, 2016 9:23 PM UTC  US author Paul Beatty poses for a photograph at a photocall in London on October 24, 2016, ahead of the announcement of the winner of the 2016 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. US author Paul Beatty poses for a photograph at a photocall in London on October 24, 2016, ahead of the announcement of the winner of the 2016 Man Booker Prize for Fiction.DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS—AFP/Getty Images by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Oct 25, 2016 9:23 PM UTC The winner of the 2016 [Man Booker Prize](http://time.com/4489139/the-man-booker-prize-for-fiction-shortlist-has-been-announced/) was announced Tuesday, bringing fame, glory and £50,000 ($61,000) to Paul Beatty for his novel [_The Sellout_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0374260508/?tag=timecom-20). Beatty is the[ first American](http://themanbookerprize.com/news/sellout-wins-2016-man-booker-prize) to win the prize, which was once limited to writers from the Commonwealth, Ireland and Zimbabwe, but since 2013 has been open to any author published in the English language in the U.K. The book satirizes race issues in America, focusing on a man whose woes (among them: the death of his father and gentrification) prompt him to bring back slavery and resegregate the school in his hometown. “This is a book that nails the reader to the cross with cheerful abandon,” said [Amanda Foreman](http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-37770363), the chair of the judges. “But while you are being nailed you are being tickled.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4545383/paul-beattys-the-sellout-wins-the-man-booker-prize/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4545383/paul-beattys-the-sellout-wins-the-man-booker-prize/"},"headline":"Paul Beatty's The Sellout Wins the Man Booker Prize","datePublished":"2016-10-25T21:23:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T01:25:23.426Z","description":"He becomes the first American to win the prize","url":"https://time.com/4545383/paul-beattys-the-sellout-wins-the-man-booker-prize/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d4271dc6f042ffd/6988ab8ecd1bba7dc1702d69/the-sellout.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d4271dc6f042ffd/6988ab8ecd1bba7dc1702d69/the-sellout.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"BRITAIN-LITERATURE-MAN-BOOKER-PRIZE","caption":"BRITAIN-LITERATURE-MAN-BOOKER-PRIZE","creditText":"DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4545383/paul-beattys-the-sellout-wins-the-man-booker-prize/","name":"Paul Beatty's The Sellout Wins the Man Booker Prize"}}]}] ```