The Man Booker Prize has been won by an American author for the first time, for an expletive-ridden satire judges said “eviscerated” political correctness.

Paul Beatty’s The Sellout was awarded the 2016 prize of £50,000, in the third year since it has been controversially opened to American writers.

Judges said the book contained “absolutely savage wit”, managing to “eviscerate every social taboo and politically correct nuance, every sacred cow, while both making us laugh and wince”.

The novel tells the story of a disaffected black American narrator who seeks to reinstate slavery and segregation in his “agrarian ghetto” town.

Confronting the inflammatory issues of race in modern America, it has raised eyebrows for its language with nearly 200 references to “n—-r” and 233 “f—“.  Read more