Marlon James Wins the 2015 Man Booker Prize

Jamaican author Marlon James has been announced as the winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize, for his novel A Brief History of Seven Killings.

The prestigious British award brings with it £50,000 (about $76,000) in addition to the £2,500 (about $3,800) awarded to each writer on the shortlist.

Joining James on the shortlist were British authors Tom McCarthy for Satin Island and Sunjeev Sahota for The Year of the Runaways, Nigerian Chigozie Obioma for The Fishermen, and Americans Anne Tyler for A Spool of Blue Thread and Hanya Yanagihara for A Little Life, which had been the favorite to win, and which is also long-listed for the National Book Award.

This is only the second year that the prize was available to anyone writing in English and published in the U.K.; previously, nominees had been limited to those from the U.K., the Commonwealth, Ireland and Zimbabwe.