In a moment of pride for Indian and world literature, lawyer-activist-writer Banu Mushtaq and translator Deepa Bhasthi have won the 2025 International Booker Prize for Heart Lamp. This is the first short story collection to receive the honour and the first book translated from Kannada to be recognised by the award.
The £50,000 prize, announced at a ceremony held at London’s Tate Modern by Chair of Judges and acclaimed author Max Porter, is shared equally between Mushtaq and Bhasthi. The award celebrates fiction translated into English and recognises the vital contribution of translators in bringing diverse global voices to new audiences.
Heart Lamp features 12 stories written between 1990 and 2023, inspired by the real-life struggles of women who sought legal assistance from Mushtaq, a 77-year-old lawyer, activist, and towering figure in progressive Kannada literature. Through powerful, poignant narratives, she explores the lives of Muslim girls and women navigating patriarchal expectations, religious conservatism, caste discrimination, and economic hardship in southern India.
Mushtaq, who becomes only the second Indian author to win the prize after Geetanjali Shree in 2022, opened her acceptance speech with a poetic metaphor: “This moment feels like a thousand fireflies lighting up a single sky — brief, brilliant, and utterly collective.” She added,
“This is more than a personal achievement. It is an affirmation that we thrive when we embrace diversity, celebrate our differences, and uplift one another.”
Deepa Bhasthi, who becomes the first Indian translator to win the award, was lauded for her “radical translation” that brings to English “a plurality of textures and voices,” as noted by Max Porter. He praised Heart Lamp as “beautiful, busy, life-affirming stories” that challenge conventional boundaries of language and literature. Bhasthi, who selected the stories herself from over 50 written by Mushtaq, dedicated her win to women whose stories are often erased or silenced.
“Sheffield-based independent publisher And Other Stories also celebrated its first-ever Booker win with this publication,” organisers noted.
The International Booker shortlist also featured:
• A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre (trans. Mark Hutchinson)
• Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico (trans. Sophie Hughes)
• Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami (trans. Asa Yoneda)
• On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle (trans. Barbara J. Haveland)
• Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix (trans. Helen Stevenson)
This year’s win marks a major milestone for Kannada literature, a language spoken by over 65 million people, now given a global platform. Mushtaq summed up the significance of this breakthrough:
“To write in Kannada is to inherit a legacy of cosmic wonder and earthly wisdom. This book is my love letter to the idea that no story is local or small.”
A reading from the winning work by actor Ambika Mod was also featured at the prize ceremony, which continues to amplify voices that reshape the global literary canon.
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