London: Canadian writer Margaret Atwood and British author Bernardine Evaristo jointly won the 2019 Booker Prize on Monday after judges 'flout' the rules by declaring a tie.
British Indian novelist Salman Rushdie's tragicomic 'Quichotte' was among the six books shortlisted for the prize.
The Booker rules say the prize must not be divided, but the judges insisted they 'couldn't separate' Atwood's 'The Testament' and 'Girl, Woman, Other' by Evaristo, who is the first black woman to win the prestigious award since its creation in 1969.
The rules were changed after the last tie in 1992, and organisers told this year's judges that they were not allowed to pick two winners.
But after five hours of deliberations, Peter Florence, the chair of the five-member judging panel, said: "It was our decision to flout the rules."
The judges said they strongly wanted both the authors to split the GBP 50,000 award at a gala ceremony at Guildhall here.
"The more we talked about them, the more we found we loved them both so much we wanted them both to win," Florence said.
Seventy-nine-year-old Canadian author Atwood expressed her joy at sharing the award with a younger writer.
Atwood joked to her co-winner: "I would have thought I would have been too elderly, and I kind of don't need the attention, so I'm very glad that you're getting some."
"It would have been quite embarrassing for me if I had been alone here, so I'm very pleased that you're here too," she said.
Evaristo said, "We black British women know that if we don't write ourselves into literature no one else will."
"It's so incredible to share this with Margaret Atwood, who's such a legend and so generous," the 60-year-old said after the shock joint win was announced.
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