Author who said his book was hard to write just won the prestigious Man Booker Prize

Winner of the 2016 Man Booker Prize for his novel The Sellout, Paul Beatty attends the 2016 Man Booker Prize at The Guildhall in London. Photos: Reuters

Paul Beatty has been named the first American to win the prestigious Man Booker fiction prize, for The Sellout, a biting satire on race relations in the United States.

The narrator of The Sellout, an African-American called "Bonbon" tries to put his Californian town back on the map, from which it has been officially removed, by re-introducing slavery and segregation in its high school.