Margaret Atwood, Bernardine Evaristo jointly win Booker Prize 2019 as jury breaks rules

Canadian writer Margaret Atwood and British author Bernardine Evaristo were on Monday (local time) announced as joint winners of 2019 Booker Prize.

While Atwood was awarded the prize for her book 'The Testaments', Bernardine Evaristo bagged it for 'Girl, Woman, Other'. Evaristo is also the first black woman to win the Booker Prize.

The Booker Prize has been jointly awarded twice before, to Nadine Gordimer and Stanley Middleton in 1974 and to Michael Ondaatje and Barry Unsworth in 1992. In 1993, the rules were changed so that only one author could win the prize.

The New York Times reported that Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo have both won this year's Booker Prize after the judges for the literary award rebelled against its rules.

"This ten-month process has been a wild adventure. In the room today we talked for five hours about books we love. Two novels we cannot compromise on. They are both phenomenal books that will delight readers and will resonate for ages to come," Chair of the 2019 judges, Peter Florence was quoted as saying.

"Congratulations @MargaretAtwood and @BernardineEvari #BookerPrize2019," The Booker Prizes wrote on its Twitter account.

In 'The Testaments' Atwood weaves together the stories of three female narrators in Gilead, a religious autocracy in what was formerly the United States, the newspaper said in its report while 'Girl, Woman, Other' features a dozen characters, most of them black British women.