Meet the winners of Booker Prize 2019 : Margaret Atwood & Bernardine Evaristo

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Honoring the best novel of the year written in English and published in the UK and Ireland, the winners of Britain's most prestigious literary prize, Booker Prize for the year 2019 have been announced. This year the prize was awarded to 2 books focusing on the experiences of women in society. Margaret Atwood's "The Testaments" and Bernardine Evaristo's "Girl, Woman, Other" jointly won the Booker Prize 2019. This year's surprise double award has recognised its oldest and first black woman winners. The authors will split the 50,000 pounds ($62,800) annual prize.

The Testaments, published last month, is the sequel to Atwood's best-selling 1985 novel, The Handmaid's Tale. The Canadian author previously won the prize in 2000 for The Blind Assassin. With this, the 79 year old became the oldest winner of the award.

In 'Girl, Woman, Other' Evaristo, the 1st black woman to win the Booker, tells the stories of 12 characters living in Britain, mainly female and black aged 19 to 93.

While the prize has been jointly awarded twice previously, the rules changed in 1993 limiting the award to one author. The judges led by Peter Florence, defied those rules, saying they could not agree on a winner between the two books, which were on a shortlist of six.

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