The 2016 Short List of Finalists:
This year's finalists included:
His Bloody Project - a historical thriller by the Scottish writer Graeme Macrae Burnet;
Do Not Say We Have Nothing by the Canadian author Madeleine Thien, which explores the legacy of China's Cultural Revolution;
All That Man Is - a collection of linked short stories about nine men in different phases of life by Canadian-British author David Szalay;
Eileen by Otessa Moshfegh, which centers on a self-loathing young woman who works in a juvenile prison in New England; and
Hot Milk - a coming of age story by Deborah Levy
And the 2016 Man Booker Prize Winner is -
The Sellout by Paul Beatty. It is published by small independent publisher Oneworld, who had their first win in 2015 with Marion James' A Brief History of Seven Killings. The author is a 54-year-old New York resident born in Los Angeles. He is the first American author to win the prize.The 2016 shortlist included two British, two US, one Canadian and one British-Canadian writer. Paul Beatty is the author of three novels - Slumberland, Tuff and the White Boy Shuffle, about a black surfer in Los Angeles in 1996 - and two books of poetry: Big Bank Take Little Bank and Joker, Joker Deuce. He is also the editor of Hokum: An Anthology of African-American Humor. Much of his writing explores recurring themes: human psychology, racial identity and our inability to escape the lingering effects of history.
The narrator of The Sellout is an African-American urban farmer and pot smoker who lives in a small town on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Brought up by a single father, a sociologist, the narrator grew up taking part in psychological studies about race. After his father is killed by the police during a traffic stop, the protagonist embarks on a controversial social experiment of his own, and ends up before the Supreme Court. He becomes a slave owner to a willing volunteer, an elderly man named Hominy Jenkins who once played understudy to Buckwheat on "The Little Rascals," and seeks to reinstate segregation in a local school.
The five Booker judges, who were unanimous in their decision, cited the novel's inventive comic approach to the thorny issues of racial identity and injustice. Check it out and see if you agree.
The Sellout by Paul Beatty. It is published by small independent publisher Oneworld, who had their first win in 2015 with Marion James' A Brief History of Seven Killings. The author is a 54-year-old New York resident born in Los Angeles. He is the first American author to win the prize.The 2016 shortlist included two British, two US, one Canadian and one British-Canadian writer. Paul Beatty is the author of three novels - Slumberland, Tuff and the White Boy Shuffle, about a black surfer in Los Angeles in 1996 - and two books of poetry: Big Bank Take Little Bank and Joker, Joker Deuce. He is also the editor of Hokum: An Anthology of African-American Humor. Much of his writing explores recurring themes: human psychology, racial identity and our inability to escape the lingering effects of history.
The narrator of The Sellout is an African-American urban farmer and pot smoker who lives in a small town on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Brought up by a single father, a sociologist, the narrator grew up taking part in psychological studies about race. After his father is killed by the police during a traffic stop, the protagonist embarks on a controversial social experiment of his own, and ends up before the Supreme Court. He becomes a slave owner to a willing volunteer, an elderly man named Hominy Jenkins who once played understudy to Buckwheat on "The Little Rascals," and seeks to reinstate segregation in a local school.
The five Booker judges, who were unanimous in their decision, cited the novel's inventive comic approach to the thorny issues of racial identity and injustice. Check it out and see if you agree.
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