Indian Author, Translator Win International Booker Prize With First Short Story Collection

Banu Mushtaq's Heart Lamp, translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi, made history by winning the 2025 International Booker Prize as the first collection of short stories and the first Kannada work to receive the £50,000 award. The book features 12 stories written over more than 30 years, portraying the resilience, resistance, and sisterhood of women in patriarchal communities of southern India, addressing themes such as gender inequality, religious oppression, and societal challenges. Mushtaq, a lawyer and women's rights activist, was inspired by the real-life struggles of women seeking her help, while Bhasthi's translation preserves the multilingual and oral storytelling traditions of the region by retaining original Urdu and Arabic terms. The prize money is split equally between author and translator, highlighting the importance of translation in global literature. The judges, including chair Max Porter, praised the book's radical and innovative translation, describing it as a fresh experience for English readers and a challenge to traditional notions of translation. Both Mushtaq and Bhasthi are set to appear at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, with the award contributing to a growing interest in translated fiction in the UK.