In a landmark moment for Indian literature, Heart Lamp, a story collection by Banu Mushtaq translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi, has become the first book written in the Kannada language to be shortlisted for the International Booker Prize.
In 12 stories, Banu Mushtaq captures the everyday lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India. Her characters—sharp-witted daughters, audacious grandmothers, long-suffering mothers, and the men who orbit their lives—are rendered with wry humor, piercing empathy, and unflinching honesty.
Spanning more than three decades of Mushtaq’s career (1990–2023), Heart Lamp is a literary portrait of life on the margins, blending everyday detail with social critique, and filtered through the lens of resistance, feminism, and faith.
On learning about being longlisted for the prize, Bhasthi, had told Penguin India that the recognition was not just personal “but a significant moment for Kannada literature.”
“That the everyday experiences of South Indian women building lives under patriarchal pressures have resonated with the distinguished jury, and hopefully, will soon reach a global readership, is both humbling and affirming. It is a testament to the universality of Banu Mushtaq’s stories and to the power of translation,” she said.
Mushtaq, on the other hand, had called the achievement “a tremendous honour for literature in the Kannada language.’
Who is Banu Mushtaq?
Mushtaq, a lawyer and activist from Karnataka, began writing within the progressive protest literary circles in southwestern India in the 1970s and 1980s: critical of the caste and class system, the Bandaya Sahitya movement gave rise to influential Dalit and Muslim writers, of whom Mushtaq was one of the few women.
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She is the author of six short story collections, a novel, an essay collection and a poetry collection. She writes in Kannada and has won major awards for her literary works, including the Karnataka Sahitya Academy and the Daana Chintamani Attimabbe awards. Heart Lamp is the first book-length translation of her work into English, having been translated into Urdu, Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam.
What are other titles on the shortlist?
Alongside Heart Lamp, five other books complete the 2025 International Booker Prize shortlist.
📌A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre, translated by Mark Hutchinson: The story of an intense platonic friendship between the narrator and his childhood friend, Fanny, who suffers from psychological illness.
📌Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, translated by Sophie Hughes: A sharp sociological novel about expat ennui and the emptiness of modern digital life in Berlin.
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📌Under the Eye of the Big Bird By Hiromi Kawakami, translated by Asa Yoneda: A speculative epic about a near-extinct future, where AI mothers watch over adults and children are manufactured.
📌Small Boat By Vincent Delecroix, translated by Helen Stevenson: A fictional retelling of a 2021 migrant tragedy in the English Channel. Through the eyes of a French coastguard worker, the book interrogates responsibility, guilt, and the ethics of indifference.
📌On the Calculation of Volume I By Solvej Balle, translated by Barbara J Haveland: The surreal story of a bookseller trapped in a time loop, waking each day to the same date: November 18th.
Presenting the #InternationalBooker2025 shortlist.
Find out more about all the books, authors and translators: https://t.co/IL8S162F8L pic.twitter.com/NmWE3ACI2r
— The Booker Prizes (@TheBookerPrizes) April 8, 2025
What is the International Booker Prize shortlist?
The list celebrates the best works of long-form fiction or collections of short stories translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland between May 1, 2024 and April 30, 2025, as judged by the 2025 panel. The winner will be announced at a ceremony at Tate Modern, London on May 20.
How was the shortlist curated?
The shortlist of six books – five novels and one collection of short stories – was chosen by the 2025 judging panel, chaired by bestselling Booker Prize-longlisted author Max Porter. The other judges are: prize-winning poet, director and photographer Caleb Femi; writer and Publishing Director of Wasafiri Sana Goyal; author and International Booker Prize-shortlisted translator Anton Hur; and award-winning singer-songwriter Beth Orton.
The judges made their selection from 154 books submitted by publishers – the highest number since the prize was launched in its current format in 2016.
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Is there a monetary award?
The prize recognises the vital work of translators with the £50,000 (approximately ₹52,00,000) prize money divided equally: £25,000 (approximately ₹26,00,000) for the author and £25,000 (approximately ₹26,00,000) for the translator (or divided equally between multiple translators). In addition, there is a prize of £5,000 (approximately ₹5,20,000) for each of the shortlisted titles: £2,500 (approximately ₹2,60,000) for the author and £2,500 (approximately ₹2,60,000) for the translator (or divided equally between multiple translators).
