Shafaqna English– Indian Author, Banu Mushtaq, wins International Booker Prize for Heart Lamp, a collection of short stories about Muslim women in southern India.
Deepa Bhasthi’s translation of 12 of Mushtaq’s tales is the first short-story collection to win the award.
Lawyer and women’s rights activist Mushtaq wrote the stories, originally in the Kannada language, over the course of 30 years. She is the second Indian author to win the prize.
Mushtaq began writing in the 1970s and has published six short story collections, a novel, and essays as well as poetry. The author was inspired to write the stories by those who came to her seeking help.
Heart Lamp “is something genuinely new for English readers: a radical translation [of] beautiful, busy, life-affirming stories”; Chairman of the 2025 panel of judges, Max Porter said.
Source: The National