Evaristos united: namesakes Bernardine and Conceição meet at book festival

Celebrated authors discuss the somewhat connected stories of their shared surname at literary event in Rio

Born more than 5,500 miles apart, the Booker prize winner Bernardine Evaristo, 65, and Brazil's most celebrated living Black author, Conceicao Evaristo, 77, share the same surname, though they are - as far as is known - unrelated.

But their surnames' stories are somewhat connected, and shed light on aspects of the history of Brazil, the country that received the largest number of enslaved Africans during the transatlantic slave trade.