London, May 21: In a historic milestone for Indian literature, writer, activist, and lawyer Banu Mushtaq has won the prestigious International Booker Prize 2025 for her acclaimed Kannada short story collection Heart Lamp, making it the first Kannada language work ever to receive the coveted GBP 50,000 award. The announcement was made during a grand ceremony held at the Tate Modern in London, where Mushtaq received the award alongside translator Deepa Bhasthi, who rendered the work into English.
Heart Lamp, a compelling collection of 12 short stories, spans over three decades of Mushtaq’s literary journey, from 1990 to 2023. The stories illuminate the inner lives, courage, and quiet resistance of women navigating deeply patriarchal communities in southern India. Rooted in the oral storytelling tradition and rich regional textures, the collection captures the humor, grief, resilience, and defiance of its characters, often told in a colloquial, emotionally resonant voice.
Accepting the award, Mushtaq described her win as a celebration of diversity and a tribute to the enduring power of storytelling. “This book was born from the belief that no story is ever small, that in the tapestry of human experience, every thread holds the weight of the whole,” she said. “In a world that often tries to divide us, literature remains one of the last sacred spaces where we can live inside each other’s minds, if only for a few pages.”
Translator Deepa Bhasthi, who curated the stories and maintained the multilingual nature of the original dialogues, preserving Urdu and Arabic expressions to retain the rhythm of southern Indian vernacular speech, expressed pride in bringing Kannada literature to a global audience. “What a beautiful win this is for my beautiful language,” she said.
Chair of the 2025 International Booker Prize judging panel, Max Porter, praised Heart Lamp for its innovative storytelling and linguistic richness. “This is a radical translation that ruffles the language, creating new textures in a plurality of Englishes. It challenges and expands our understanding of translation. From our very first reading, the judges were enamored by this extraordinary book,” he said.
Fiammetta Rocco, Administrator of the International Booker Prize, called Heart Lamp a vital literary work that speaks directly to contemporary global concerns. “Written by a fierce advocate of women’s rights and translated with both sympathy and ingenuity, this collection deserves to be read by men and women around the world. It gives voice to the silenced and reflects a world in flux,” she noted.
The International Booker Prize recognizes the best works of long-form fiction or short story collections translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland. Along with the main award, each of the six shortlisted books received GBP 5,000, equally split between the author and translator. As the winner, Mushtaq and Bhasthi will each receive GBP 25,000.
This landmark win follows India’s growing presence in global literature. It is the second time an Indian author has secured the International Booker, following Geetanjali Shree’s Hindi novel Tomb of Sand, translated by Daisy Rockwell, which won in 2022. Last year, Tamil author Perumal Murugan’s novel Pyre, translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan, made it to the longlist.
The other shortlisted works for the 2025 prize included:
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- On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle (Danish), translated by Barbara J. Haveland
- Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix (French), translated by Helen Stevenson
- Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami (Japanese), translated by Asa Yoneda
- Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico (Italian), translated by Sophie Hughes
- A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre (French), translated by Mark Hutchinson
Heart Lamp’s triumph not only marks a groundbreaking moment for Kannada literature but also reinforces the power of translation in bridging cultures and opening up new literary frontiers to the global reader.
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