LONDON - Canadian literary star Margaret Atwood has won the Booker Prize for the second time, but is sharing it this time with British author Bernardine Evaristo.
In an unusual move, the Booker Prize jury awarded the prize jointly to Atwood and Evaristo at a ceremony Monday night.
Atwood won the award for "The Testaments,'' her blockbuster follow-up to "The Handmaid's Tale,'' while Evaristo won for "Girl, Woman, Other.''
The Booker is considered one of the most prestigious literary awards in the English-speaking world and comes with a 50,000-pound (C$83,500) prize.
Atwood previously won in 2000 for ``The Blind Assassin.''
Industry insiders predict "The Testaments'' will be one of the year's bestsellers.
The long-awaited sequel is equal parts political thriller and allegory, set in a world in which women are subjugated as properties of the state.
A Booker judge praised the novel as "savage and beautiful'' and said it delivers its message "with conviction and power.''
The Toronto Star