Much is made in fiction of the narrative arc. Very little is spoken about the readers' trajectory - until now. That journey will be elevated to an unavoidable talking point with the surprising and, in some quarters, controversial choice of US author Paul Beatty's dazzling, dizzying race relations satire The Sellout as this year's Man Booker Prize winner.My own trajectory went something like this: this is impenetrable. Clever but I hate it. Funny but I really hate it. This is exhausting. I feel assaulted. Right, I'm putting it down.But actually, I want to know what happens next. It's an onslaught of provocative ideas (a return to slavery anyone?) and slyly casual references to Jean-Luc Godard, Robespierre and Björk."That makes me really happy," says Beatty when I tell him I threw The Sellout down then picked it up again. I'm genuinely not sure which of these makes him happier. "I know it's a difficult book, but I hope readers come away from it thinking. That's all I can ask."There's something very powerful about seeing life from a different perspective. When you read a great book it's like there's a weight in your chest - or it can liberate you from a weight in your chest. It makes a difference."Beatty, 54, who teaches creative writing at the University of Colombia in New York, was in tears at the Booker awards ceremony. He felt tongue-tied. By his own account, he is "not a good public speaker". Yet on paper his dangerous thoughts dance like impish angels on a pinhead. His lacerating observations on race and racism are laced with the savage wit of a stand-up.The opening line sets out Beatty's stall: "This may be hard to believe, coming from a black man, but I've never stolen anything," says the narrator of The Sellout.The plot is outlandish, but there is method in the madness and profundity in the surreal misadventures of an African-American boy brought up in the "agrarian ghetto" of Dickens on the outskirts of Los Angeles, which is a place of gangland gunfire and police brutality.His father conducts racially skewed psychology studies on him involving electrodes, physical chastisement and emotional abuse. It's both horrible and hilarious.Later, when the authorities decide to ethnically cleanse Dickens from the map, the narrator spearheads a radical intervention by reinstating slavery and segregating the local high school. Exam results improve, but he ends up in the Supreme Court, answering for his crimes against the US Constitution.The Man Booker judges praised Beatty's audacity and his ability to meld comedy and tragedy into something new and potent."Timely" is another oft-repeated epithet. The Sellout has been applauded for appearing as racial tensions threaten to tear the US apart and the spectre of Donald Trump looms large. Yet this is a work that has been seven years in the writing."People keep on referring to the timing of the book. I think it's nice to know it has some relevance," says Beatty, mildly, "but to me, this is a book about shifting borders. Times don't really change."For some people, the racism issue is old news; for others, it's a wake-up call. We all pick and choose when we want to listen; when Obama goes on television and addresses the nation it forces certain people to pay attention to the police shootings, but there are communities where it's part of their everyday experience."Beatty and his two sisters were born in Los Angeles and raised by their mother. Academically gifted, he went on to study psychology in Boston. After graduation he stayed on to do a doctorate, but three years in he dropped out in order to write.He was drawn to poetry, winning a grand slam spoken word poetry title and writing two volumes of poetry before he penned his first novel, The White Boy Shuffle, in 1996. Then came Tuff in 2000, followed in 2008 by Slumberland, set in Berlin.Beatty also gained a Masters in creative writing at Brooklyn College under Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. "He immediately impressed me with his generosity of spirit and his flawless ear for language and intention. He taught me that people can tell if you are bullshitting them, so I became aware of when I was bullshitting."His year spent in Berlin proved to be tough but inspirational."It was good for me not to understand and to try to figure out what was being said. The Germans are very precise with language. The country was examining itself and I loved how willing they were to both remember and forget the past."When I tell him that, as far as ideas go, my abiding impression of The Sellout is that being black virtually constitutes a full-time job, he laughs in agreement."Yes, being black is a full-time job: sometimes you are invisible, other times you are hyper-visible," he says. "Sometimes you are welcome, other times you are not. The thermostat is always moving and you have to keep adapting to find some comfort level. Richard Pryor used to talk about going to Africa and people there telling him he was white. Even though he was black, he just wasn't black enough."Perhaps after reading The Sellout, the US might care a little more. For now, Beatty is enjoying the affirmation that a Man Booker Prize affords any writer.Finally, perhaps belatedly, I ask if he prefers to be referred to as Afro-American or black. Beatty replies with easy grace: "Tall. Just say I'm tall, that works for me."'The Sellout' is published by Oneworld, R195..