Which novel won The Man Booker Prize in the year 2016?

Introduction / Context:
This question checks knowledge of major international literary awards, specifically The Man Booker Prize, which honours the best original novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom. Many competitive exams ask about recent Booker winners because they are widely discussed in newspapers and literary circles. The 2016 winning novel is especially notable because it was the first time a writer from a particular background won this prestigious prize, making it stand out in general knowledge lists.

Given Data / Assumptions:

- The award mentioned is The Man Booker Prize for the year 2016.
- Options list several Booker winning novels from nearby years: The Sellout, A Brief History of Seven Killings, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, The Luminaries, plus The God of Small Things from an earlier year.
- We must identify which title corresponds to the 2016 winner.
- We assume standard Booker Prize records as published by the official prize organisation.

Concept / Approach:
The key is to align each novel with its winning year. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton won in 2013, The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan won in 2014, A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James won in 2015, and The Sellout by Paul Beatty won in 2016. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy is an earlier Indian Booker winner from 1997. Once we remember that The Sellout, a satirical novel about race in the United States, made history as the first novel by an American author to win the Man Booker Prize, we can confidently select it as the 2016 winner.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Recall that the Man Booker Prize 2016 went to Paul Beatty for his novel The Sellout. Step 2: Remember that this win was historically significant because it was the first time an American writer won the prize. Step 3: Match the title The Sellout in the options with this memory of the 2016 award. Step 4: Confirm that the other titles belong to different years, which eliminates them as possible answers for 2016.

Verification / Alternative check:
A quick check of the official Booker Prize archive shows the sequence The Luminaries in 2013, The Narrow Road to the Deep North in 2014, A Brief History of Seven Killings in 2015, and The Sellout in 2016. It also lists The God of Small Things as the 1997 winner. This chronological record proves that The Sellout is the correct and only answer for the 2016 award. Any other choice would contradict the established prize history.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James won the Man Booker Prize in 2015, not in 2016.
The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan received the prize in 2014, one year earlier than the book listed in the previous option.
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton was the 2013 winner, so it does not match the year given in the question.
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy is an earlier Booker winning novel from 1997 and is included mainly to test whether you can distinguish older winners from recent ones.

Common Pitfalls:
Students sometimes memorise only the names of Booker winning novels but not the exact years, which leads to confusion between closely spaced winners from 2013 to 2016. The presence of The God of Small Things can also distract Indian candidates who remember it as a landmark achievement but forget that it belongs to the 1990s. Another frequent mistake is to choose A Brief History of Seven Killings because it is almost adjacent to 2016 in the prize timeline. Building a small mental timeline of key Booker winners and their years helps to answer such questions accurately.

Final Answer:
The novel that won The Man Booker Prize in 2016 is The Sellout.