Banu Mushtaq
Heart Lamp
Winner of the 2025 International Booker Prize
Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Gregg Barios Book in Translation Prize
In the twelve stories of Heart Lamp, Banu Mushtaq exquisitely captures the everyday lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India. Published originally in the Kannada language between 1990 and 2023, praised for their dry and gentle humour, these portraits of family and community tensions testify to Mushtaq’s years as a journalist and lawyer, in which she tirelessly championed women’s rights and protested all forms of caste and religious oppression. Written in a style at once witty, vivid, colloquial, moving and excoriating, it’s in her characters – the sparky children, the audacious grandmothers, the buffoonish maulvis and thug brothers, the oft-hapless husbands, and the mothers above all, surviving their feelings at great cost – that Mushtaq emerges as an astonishing writer and observer of human nature, building disconcerting emotional heights out of a rich spoken style. Her opus has garnered both censure from conservative quarters as well India’s most prestigious literary awards; this is a collection sure to be read for years to come.
Read an ExcerptMore Info
- Watch Max Porter announcing Heart Lamp as the winner of the 2025 International Booker Prize and speeches from Banu Mushtaq and Deepa Bhasthi.
- Listen to Banu and Deepa being interviewed by Asma Khalid of NPR on Here and Now.
- Listen to Banu Mushtaq being interviewed on BBC World Service’s Outlook.
- ‘Red Lungi’, one of the stories in Heart Lamp, is available to read in Paris Review.
- Read Deepa Bhasthi’s essay ‘Anthe: On Translating Kannada’ in Paris Review.
Author: Banu Mushtaq
Original language: Kannada
Format: B format paperback
Publication date: 8 April 2025
ISBN: 9781916751163
Ebook ISBN: 9781916751170
Reviews
The International Booker Prize 2025 Judges
‘Exploring the lives of those often on the periphery of society, these vivid stories hold immense emotional and moral weight’
‘In a dozen stories – written across three decades – Banu Mushtaq, a major voice within progressive Kannada literature – portrays the lives of those often on the periphery of society: girls and women in Muslim communities in southern India. These stories speak truth to power and slice through the fault lines of caste, class, and religion widespread in contemporary society, exposing the rot within: corruption, oppression, injustice, violence. Yet, at its heart, Heart Lamp returns us to the true, great pleasures of reading: solid storytelling, unforgettable characters, vivid dialogue, tensions simmering under the surface, and a surprise at each turn. Deceptively simple, these stories hold immense emotional, moral, and socio-political weight, urging us to dig deeper.’
Washington Post
‘This selection of Mushtaq’s stories about Muslim girls and women in southern India, translated by Deepa Bhasthi, is a finalist for this year’s International Booker Prize. Mushtaq is a journalist, lawyer and women’s rights activist, and these fictional stories span more than 30 years of her career as an author.’
Lucy Popescu
Financial Times
‘These twelve stories, selected by her translator Deepa Bhasthi, offer affecting portraits of family and community. Specifically, they illuminate the lives of Muslim and Dalit women and children in southern India . . . Mushtaq’s compassion and dark humour give texture to her stories. These deceptively simple tales decry the subjugation of women while celebrating their resilience. Bhasthi’s nuanced translation retains several Kannada, Urdu and Arabic words, eloquently conveying the language’s enduring tradition of oral storytelling.’
Publishers Weekly, starred review
‘Mushtaq makes her English-language debut with this virtuosic collection . . . The stories are united by a keen eye for the interplay between their characters’ social circumstances and inner lives, as religious authority and economic class exert their influence. It’s an excellent introduction to an author of rare talent.’
Areeb Ahmad
Words Without Borders
‘Bhasthi provides us a glimpse into Mushtaq’s code-switching in her translator’s note and through her superb translation . . . [The] final story, “Be a Woman Once, Oh Lord!” is written as an everywoman’s plea to God . . . Her account, she says, has been “written from the heart, a woman’s heart, a string of letters written with the heart’s sharp nib and the red ink inside”—a fitting description for Heart Lamp as a whole as Mushtaq and Bhasthi evoke and illuminate the inner worlds of women.’
Joshua Jones
‘With a tender heart and a sharp eye for nuance, Banu Mushtaq pens stories with deep contextual understanding of patriarchal institutions and with sympathy to the modern realities of contemporary Muslim women.’
Kavita Bhanot
‘Banu Mushtaq was one of the founding members of the Bandaya Sahitya Sanghatane, which means the Rebel Literary Movement. A favourite phrase of the movement was: “The dear friend whose heart beats for people’s pain.” We see this compassion and love for the people, in particular Muslim women, that Mushtaq writes about in her stories. As a friend, she writes from amidst them, for them, through the struggles, details and complexity of their lives. Deepa Bhasthi's beautiful translation shares these stories with a wider readership.’
Aishwarya Kumar
AFP News
‘Critics praised the collection for its dry and gentle humour, and its searing commentary on the patriarchy, caste and religion. Mushtaq has carved an alternative path in life, challenging societal restrictions and perceptions.’
PEN Presents Selection Panel
‘A significant presence in Kannada literature, Banu Mushtaq reveals the varied realities of contemporary women with rare talent and art. Deepa Bhasthi’s rich translation captures the original’s nuances of voice, context and experience, bringing this important work into English for new readers in India and internationally.’
New Age Islam
‘One of Karnataka’s leading progressive writers.’
Megan Stevenson, Waterstones Newcastle
‘Exploring the gorgeous chorus of voices that make up Heart Lamp feels a little like stepping into an unknown pair of shoes. We can experience where the other wearer might have felt a pinching sense of restriction, the little scuffs and imperfections their day-to-day life has caused, the spaces where comfort can be found. Profound, heart-wrenching and insightful, this should be on everyone's reading list for 2025.’