The Sellout by Paul Beatty

The Sellout is a novel by Paul Beatty that was published in 2015 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux and in 2016 by Oneworld Publications in the United Kingdom. The novel is set in and around Los Angeles, California, and reflects on the current state of racial relations in the United States. It won the Man Booker Prize in October 2016, making Beatty the first American writer to do so.

Paul Beatty introduces readers to Me, a young Black watermelon and weed grower, in The Sellout. When Me's father is killed by police and his hometown Dickens is wiped off the map, he decides to confront one injustice by burying it beneath another. In one of the novel's many absurdist twists, Me hires a Black slave as his footstool and petitions America's highest court to reinstate segregation. This caustic but heartfelt satirical novel, powered by a wicked wit, turns themes of racism and slavery inside out in service of a devastatingly clever message.

Link to read: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22237161