LONDON: Paul Beatty became the first US author to win the Man Booker Prize — the world’s most prestigious English-language literary award — for his novel “The Sellout” late Tuesday.
The jury said the novel was a “shocking and unexpectedly funny” portrayal of his native Los Angeles, which employs satire to explore racial equality in a fictional neighborhood.
“I can’t tell you guys how long a journey this has been for me,” the writer, overwhelmed with emotion, said as he received the award from Prince Charles’s wife Camilla.
“In his equally affectionate and bitterly ironic portrait of the city and its inhabitants, Paul Beatty dodges inherited views of race relations, solutions or assumptions,” the jury said.
The author “presents through his beguilingly honest and well-intentioned hero an innocent’s view of his corrupt world.”
They said that the book brings “the unendurable status quo of present day US race relations to an absurdist conclusion, taking political correctness and self-loathing hostage en route.”
“The Sellout” is Beatty’s fourth novel and earlier this year it won the National Book Critics Circle Award in the United States.
The winner of the Man Booker receives £52,500, although the real prize is seen as the huge sales prompted the moment judges announce their decision.
It was only opened to non-Commonwealth authors from 2013 — a decision that was highly controversial in Britain.
No US author had won it until now, despite concerns that writers from the United States would dominate the prize.
Jury chair Amanda Foreman said nationality had nothing to do with the choice.
Paul Beatty first US author to win Man Booker Prize
Paul Beatty first US author to win Man Booker Prize
Small dog sole survivor of Peru helicopter crash that killed 15
- Rescue workers found the caramel-colored dog among the twisted wreckage of the Mi-17 helicopter
- Local media reported that the dog appeared OK, but as a precaution was taken to a veterinary clinic
LIMA: The only survivor of a military helicopter crash in southern Peru that killed 15 people was a small dog belonging to a colonel who was among the passengers, an air force source told AFP Tuesday.
Rescue workers found the caramel-colored dog among the twisted wreckage of the Mi-17 helicopter that crashed Sunday. It was lying next to the body of its owner, Col. Javier Nole, 50, who was on board with his wife and two daughters.
“It’s Col. Nole’s pet; it’s the only survivor,” the source, who requested anonymity, told AFP.
Local media reported that the dog appeared OK, but as a precaution was taken to a veterinary clinic.
Seven children were among the 15 fatalities when the Russian-made aircraft crashed in the Arequipa region. The helicopter had been recently deployed in rescue operations for victims of floods there.
It had taken off from the city of Pisco, in the Ica region. Rescuers located the wreckage on Monday just over 300 kilometers (186 miles) away near Chala Viejo, a town close to the Pacific coast in Arequipa.
The air force has launched an investigation to determine the cause of the accident.
