• Banu Mushtaq wins the 2025 International Booker Prize for her collection "Heart Lamp."
• This marks the first time a Kannada language work has received this prestigious honor.
• The collection highlights the daily struggles of Muslim women in southern India.
• Mushtaq shares the award with her translator, Deepa Bhasthi, illustrating the power of literary collaboration.
• The jury praised the collection for its unique style and insightful commentary on societal issues.

Indian author Banu Mushtaq has made history by winning the 2025 International Booker Prize for her short story collection Heart Lamp. This award is particularly significant as it is the first time that a work written in Kannada, a language from the southern Indian state of Karnataka, has received this prestigious accolade for translated fiction. The collection consists of 12 stories that highlight the everyday lives and struggles of Muslim women in India, capturing their resilience and the myriad challenges they face in a patriarchal society, according to BBC and South China Morning Post.

At the award ceremony held at the Tate Modern gallery in London, Mushtaq expressed her gratitude, stating, “This moment feels like a thousand fireflies lighting a single sky.” She emphasized that the recognition is not solely for her but represents a collective voice of many women. The £50,000 prize will be shared with her translator, Deepa Bhasthi, who played a crucial role in bringing these stories to English-speaking readers, illustrating the importance of collaboration in literature, according to New York Times and South China Morning Post.

The stories in Heart Lamp span musings collected over three decades, from 1990 to 2023, and focus on the intricacies of life for women within Muslim communities in southern India. Critics have lauded the collection for its incorporation of dry humor and acute commentary on issues like patriarchy and casteism, making it a notable work in contemporary literature. Max Porter, chair of the judging panel, remarked that Mushtaq has offered English readers “something genuinely new,” challenging conventional translation norms, according to New York Times and BBC.

Mushtaq's powerful storytelling is rooted in her own experiences, having grown up in a Muslim neighborhood in Karnataka. Her work not only reflects personal narratives but also tackles broader social issues, shedding light on how societal demands often silence women's voices. In her own words, she has stated that her stories highlight how “religion, society, and politics demand unquestioning obedience” from women, which can result in severe emotional and psychological consequences. This approach affirms the pivotal role of her characters, who resist and persist against societal expectations, as detailed in critiques published in BBC and South China Morning Post.