Heart Lamp, a collection of short stories about Muslim women in southern India by Banu Mushtaq, has won the coveted International Booker Prize.
Deepa Bhasthi's translation of 12 of Mushtaq’s tales is the first short-story collection to win the award.
Lawyer and women’s rights activist Mushtaq wrote the stories, originally in the Kannada language, over the course of 30 years. She is the second Indian author to win the prize.
Mushtaq began writing in the 1970s and has published six short story collections, a novel and essays as well as poetry.
The author was inspired to write the stories by those who came to her seeking help.
“The pain, suffering and helpless lives of these women create a deep emotional response within me, compelling me to write,” she said, according to a press release by the prize committee.
Translator Bhasthi selected and curated the stories, with the aim of preserving the multilingual nature of southern India. When the characters use Urdu or Arabic words in conversation, these are left in the original, reproducing the unique rhythms of spoken language.
Heart Lamp “is something genuinely new for English readers: a radical translation [of] beautiful, busy, life-affirming stories”, chairman of the 2025 panel of judges Max Porter said.
“This was the book the judges really loved, right from our first reading. It’s been a joy to listen to the evolving appreciation of these stories from the different perspectives of the jury.”
The International Booker Prize recognises the vital work of translation, with the £50,000 prize money divided equally between the author and the translator.
