Lady with lantern

• Banu Mushtaq’s Heart Lamp, translated from Kannada to English by Deepa Bhasthi, won the International Booker Prize for 2025.

• This is the first award for Kannada, a language Mushtaq believes has “cosmic wonder and earthly wisdom.”

• The book, written between 1990 and 2023, focuses on Muslim girls and women on the margins, seeking a foothold in a patriarchal world.

• The book was published originally in Kannada by Abhiruchi Prakashana, Mysuru.

• Mushtaq, a lawyer and activist, was inspired by the Bandaya Sahitya movement of the 1980s, which urged women to write about their lived experiences.

• The book highlights the struggles of women, often powerless, financially dependent, and lacking agency over their bodies and education.

• The book also features wry humor, such as the wry humour of a mother who appeals to god after giving birth.

• The translator, Bhasthi, praised the “radical translation” of the story, retaining the rhythms of the many Kannadas spoken in the region.

• The booker jury chair, Max Porter, praised the “viscerally” impact of the translation and hoped it would lead to more translations from other “magical” languages of South Asia.