Karnataka-based writer, activist and lawyer Banu Mushtaq’s short story collection ‘Heart Lamp’ has been shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025. The work has been translated from Kannada to English by Deepa Bhasthi.
This is the first time a Kannada title has made it this far in the race for the coveted literary prize. Shortlisted among six worldwide titles, Mushtaq’s work appealed to the judges for its witty, vivid, colloquial, moving and excoriating style of capturing portraits of family and community tensions. The 12 stories, published originally between 1990 and 2023, will now go head-to-head with authors from across the world.
In a statement, Penguin Random House India said this achievement marks a historic moment, with Heart Lamp becoming one of the very few Kannada-language works to be recognised at this level.
Karnataka-based writer, activist and lawyer Banu Mushtaq’s short story collection ‘Heart Lamp’, translated from Kannada to English by Deepa Bhasthi, was on Tuesday shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025 in London.
It marks the first time a Kannada title has made it this far in the race for the coveted GBP 50,000 literary prize – divided between author and translator.
Shortlisted among six worldwide titles, Mushtaq’s work appealed to the judges for its “witty, vivid, colloquial, moving and excoriating” style of capturing portraits of family and community tensions.
“Stories about encroaching modernity, as told through the lives of Muslim women in southern India. An invigorating reading experience,” reads the judges’ reason for including it on the shortlist.
The 12 stories, published originally between 1990 and 2023, will now go head-to-head with authors from across the world.
“My stories are about women – how religion, society, and politics demand unquestioning obedience from them, and in doing so, inflict inhumane cruelty upon them, turning them into mere subordinates,” Mushtaq said in a statement.
“The daily incidents reported in the media and the personal experiences I have endured have been my inspiration. The pain, suffering, and helpless lives of these women create a deep emotional response within me. I do not engage in extensive research; my heart itself is my field of study,” she said.
The book’s translator, Deepa Bhasthi, added: “For me, translation is an instinctive practice, and each book demands a completely different process. With Banu’s stories, I first read all the fiction she had published before I narrowed it down to the ones that are in ‘Heart Lamp’.