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"Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo have been named the joint winners of the 2019 Booker Prize after the judges broke their rules by declaring a tie. Atwood&#039;s The Testaments, the Canadian writer&#039;s follow-up to The Handmaid&#039;s Tale, was recognised alongside Londoner Evaristo&#039;s novel Girl, Woman, Other.The pair will split the literary award&#039;s £50,000 prize money equally.The Booker rules say the prize must not be divided, but the judges insisted they &quot;couldn&#039;t separate&quot; the two works.Atwood, 79, is the oldest ever Booker winner, while Evaristo is the first black woman to win.After their names were called, the pair stood arm-in-arm on stage and Atwood joked: &quot;I would have thought I would have been too elderly, and I kind of don&#039;t need the attention, so I&#039;m very glad that you&#039;re getting some.&quot;It would have been quite embarrassing for me… if I had been alone here, so I&#039;m very pleased that you&#039;re here too.&quot;The award&#039;s rules were changed after the last tie in 1992, and organisers told this year&#039;s judges they were not allowed to pick two winners.But after five hours of deliberations, Peter Florence, the chair of the judges, said: &quot;It was our decision to flout the rules."
<https://www.srilankamirror.com/entertainment-mirror/15974-joint-winners-named-for-booker-prize>