Heart Lamp with Booker Prize Win Shines Regional Literature
Banu Mushtaq's Heart Lamp wins Booker Prize 2025 (Image Booker Prize)
Banu Mushtaq Wins 2025 International Booker Prize for Heart Lamp
By AMIT KUMAR
NEW DELHI, May 21, 2025 – Banu Mushtaq won the International Booker Prize for her collection of short stories, Heart Lamp, to bring spotlight on richness of India’s regional literature. Three years ago, in 2022, Geetanjali Shree’s Tomb of Sand had won the International Booker Prize.
Daisy Rockwell had translated Shree’s Ret Samadhi to bring an international spotlight on India’s non-English literary world. In a span of three years, two translated literary works from India won the International Booker Prize.
Heart Lamp, translated by Deepa Bhasthi, comprises 12 stories that explore the lives of women and girls in southern India. Mushtaq wrote the short stories in Kannada.
The collection, spanning three decades of Mushtaq’s writing, has been praised for its emotional depth and moral weight. The Booker Prizes’ website described the work as “exquisitely capturing the everyday lives of women and girls,” highlighting its ability to portray those often marginalized in society.
UK-based media outlets have celebrated the win, with The Guardian noting, “Banu Mushtaq’s Heart Lamp is a triumph of storytelling, offering a nuanced glimpse into the lives of Muslim women in India. Its recognition by the International Booker Prize is a testament to the power of translated literature.”
The Times echoed this sentiment, stating, “Mushtaq’s work, though not widely known outside Karnataka, deserves this global spotlight. Heart Lamp is a collection that resonates universally, despite its specific cultural context.”
The International Booker Prize, awarded annually for a single book written in another language and translated into English, has a history of elevating diverse voices.
Mushtaq’s victory follows in the footsteps of previous winners like Han Kang (The Vegetarian, 2016) and Jenny Erpenbeck (Kairos, 2024). The prize, now in its 20th year, aims to encourage the reading of quality fiction from around the world, with Heart Lamp exemplifying this mission.
Mushtaq, a writer, activist, and lawyer based in Karnataka, expressed her gratitude in a statement quoted by BBC Culture: “This recognition is not just for me but for the stories of countless women whose voices are often unheard. I am deeply honoured that Heart Lamp has found a global audience.”
Her work, rooted in progressive Kannada literature, has long been celebrated in India, with one story, ‘Kari Nagaragalu,’ adapted into a film that won a National Film Award for Best Actress in 2003. The story spotlighted the life of a Muslim woman deserted by her husband.
The translation by Deepa Bhasthi, a writer and literary translator from Kodagu, has been instrumental in bringing Mushtaq’s work to English readers. The Financial Times highlighted Bhasthi’s role, stating, “The translator’s art is often unsung, but Bhasthi’s rendition of Heart Lamp captures the essence of Mushtaq’s prose, making it accessible and resonant for a global audience.”
Mushtaq’s feat brought spotlight on regional literature in India. With the mainstream India largely paying attention to English literature, Mushtaq and Shree bring freshness in story-telling, while being grounded to originality.
The Independent noted, “Mushtaq’s success is a reminder of the richness of Indian regional literatures, often overshadowed by more commercial works. Heart Lamp challenges readers to engage with complex, everyday realities.”
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