Overview

• Heart Lamp, a collection of 12 Kannada short stories by Banu Mushtaq, translated into English by Deepa Bhasthi, has won the 2025 International Booker Prize.
• This marks the first time a short story collection has won the prestigious award and the first time an Indian translator has been recognized.
• Judges praised the translation as 'radical,' celebrating its integration of multiple Englishes while preserving the cultural essence of Kannada.
• The stories explore themes such as women’s lives, reproductive rights, caste, faith, and resistance against patriarchal systems in southern India.
• The £50,000 prize, shared equally between Mushtaq and Bhasthi, was awarded at a ceremony at London’s Tate Modern.