Two women authors Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo have been named the joint winners of the 2019 Booker Prize.
Canadian writer Atwood’s was awarded for her follow up novel ‘The Testaments’. It is the follow-up to The Handmaid’s Tale, and was recognised alongside Londoner Evaristo’s novel Girl, Woman, Other.
Both the authors will split the literary award’s £50,000 prize money equally.
While the prize has been jointly awarded twice previously, the rules changed in 1993 limiting the award to one author. The Booker rules say the prize must not be divided, but the judges insisted they “couldn’t separate” the two works.
Ms. Atwood, 79, previously won the prize in 2000 for ‘The Blind Assassin’. The Testaments, published last month, is the sequel to the Canadian author’s best-selling 1985 novel, The Handmaid’s Tale. She is the oldest ever Booker winner, while Evaristo is the first black woman to win.
Ms. Evaristo, the first black woman to win the prize, tells the stories of 12 characters, mainly female and black aged 19 to 93, living in Britain in Girl, Woman, Other.
About Man Booker Prize
- The Man Booker Prize was established in 1969.
- It is awarded annually to the best novel of the year written in English and published in the UK or Ireland.
- The winner receives £50,000, while each of the shortlisted authors is awarded £2,500.
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