Heart Lamp glows, story collection wins the Booker Prize for Banu and Deepa
Kannada writer, lawyer and activist Banu Mushtaq set multiple records on Tuesday (May 20, 2025) as Heart Lamp, a collection of 12 short stories selected from her work written between 1990 and 2023 and translated by Deepa Bhasthi, won the International Booker Prize for 2025.
This is the first time a Kannada work has won the prestigious award, and also the first time in the history of the prize that a collection of short stories has been honoured. Indian author Geetanjali Shree won the award for Tomb of Sand, translated from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell, three years ago.
In the book, Ms. Mushtaq writes about girls like 'sweet Asifa' who has had to bid goodbye to her studies to look after her siblings and help her mother (Stone Slabs for Shaista Mahal); or overworked mothers like Arifa (Fire Rain) and Mehrun (Heart Lamp) who struggle to save their children and themselves; and maulvis who would rather preach than practise (Black Cobras). In another story, the narrator, weary after giving birth, pleads to God: 'Be a Woman Once, Oh Lord!'
In her translator's note, Ms. Bhasthi says that Ms. Mushtaq's career can be summed up in one Kannada word – 'bandaya', which means 'dissent, rebellion, protest, resistance to authority, revolution and its adjacent ideas.' The Bandaya Sahitya literary movement of the 1970s and '80s, which urged marginalised communities including women and Dalits to tell their stories and fight for their rights, helped Ms. Mushtaq find her voice.
In an interview in April, Ms. Mushtaq said, 'Being multilingual, I naturally use various languages in my stories. In our daily lives, these languages blend together, and I bring that same sensibility to my writing. It enhances relatability.'
Narrating unheard stories and speaking truth to power have had consequences, too. Just around 20 years ago, Ms. Mushtaq faced a severe backlash for saying that women also have a right to offer prayers in mosques.
In a world that often tries to divide people, Ms. Mushtaq contended that literature remains one of the 'last sacred spaces where we can live inside each other's minds if only for a few pages.'
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