Shortlisted for the 2025 International Booker 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 as India’s most prestigious literary awards; this is a collection sure to be read for years to come.
‘Exploring the lives of those often on the periphery of society, these vivid stories hold immense emotional and moral weight … 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.’
-Judges’ citation from the 2025 International Booker Prize
‘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.’
-Pen Presents selection panel
‘The critical acclaim of Heart Lamp is deserved; Mushtaq is – and has been for decades – a writer with a noticeably powerful and profound voice. The potential recognition of her stories through the Bhasti’s translation of Heart Lamp will introduce her stories, already beloved in Kannada, to a wider and diversified audience.’
Mahika Dhar, Asian Review of Books
Heart Lamp is something genuinely new for English readers. A radical translation which ruffles language, to create new textures in a plurality of Englishes. It challenges and expands our understanding of translation. These beautiful, busy, life-affirming stories rise from Kannada, interspersed with the extraordinary socio-political richness of other languages and dialects. It speaks of women’s lives, reproductive rights, faith, caste, power and oppression.’
-Max Porter, Chair of International Booker Prize 2025 judges
Format: Paperback
Pages: 224
Imprint: Scribe Australia
Publication date: 22/05/2025
