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2025 International Booker Prize: Banu Mushtaq’s ‘Heart Lamp’ becomes first Kannada work on shortlist
Public Lokpal
April 09, 2025
2025 International Booker Prize: Banu Mushtaq’s ‘Heart Lamp’ becomes first Kannada work on shortlist
LONDON: Karnataka-based writer, activist and lawyer Banu Mushtaq’s short story collection ‘Heart Lamp’, translated from Kannada to English by Deepa Bhasthi, was on Tuesday shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025 in London.
It marks the first time a Kannada title has made it this far in the race for the coveted GBP 50,000 literary prize – divided between author and translator.
Shortlisted among six worldwide titles, Mushtaq’s work appealed to the judges for its “witty, vivid, colloquial, moving and excoriating” style of capturing portraits of family and community tensions.
“Stories about encroaching modernity, as told through the lives of Muslim women in southern India. An invigorating reading experience,” reads the judges’ reason for including it on the shortlist.
The 12 stories, published originally between 1990 and 2023, will now go head-to-head with authors from across the world.
PTI
