Heart Lamp: Selected Stories by Banu Mushtaq – Translated by Deepa Bhasthi

Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq

Heart Lamp: Selected Stories by Banu Mushtaq, translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi, is a powerful collection of twelve short stories exploring the everyday lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India.

Written across more than three decades, the stories originally appeared in Kannada between 1990 and 2023. Together, they offer intimate portraits of family life, marriage, motherhood, faith, class, gender expectations, social pressure and the resilience of women navigating difficult circumstances.

The English collection was published by And Other Stories and went on to win the International Booker Prize 2025. The Booker Prize Foundation confirms that it was the first short-story collection ever to win the International Booker and the first winning book translated from Kannada.

Twelve Stories Across Three Decades

Unlike a novel following one continuous plot, Heart Lamp brings together twelve distinct stories.

The stories were written at different points in Banu Mushtaq’s career, allowing the collection to reflect changing social circumstances while also showing how certain struggles continue across generations.

The Booker Prizes notes that the stories were originally written between 1990 and 2023.

The collection includes stories such as:

• Stone Steps for Shaista Mahal
• Fire Rain
• Black Cobras
• A Decision of the Heart
• Red Lungi
• Heart Lamp
• High Heeled Shoe
• Soft Whispers
• A Taste of Heaven
• The Shroud
• The Arabic Teacher and Gobi Manchuri

The official And Other Stories copyright extract confirms these original Kannada publication histories and the English translation by Deepa Bhasthi.

Women at the Centre

Women and girls are at the centre of Heart Lamp.

Mushtaq writes about characters living within families and communities where expectations around marriage, obedience, motherhood, religion and social respectability can have enormous consequences.

The stories explore experiences involving:

• Marriage
• Motherhood
• Family obligations
• Gender expectations
• Domestic conflict
• Economic pressure
• Religious authority
• Social status
• Community judgement
• Resilience
• Resistance
• Personal dignity

The Booker Prize Foundation describes the collection as focusing on women and girls in patriarchal communities in southern India and notes that Mushtaq drew inspiration from both lived experience and women who approached her for help during her work as a lawyer and activist.

Family and Community

One of the strengths of Heart Lamp is that the stories do not treat characters as isolated individuals.

Family and community are always present.

A person’s decisions may affect:

• Parents
• Children
• Spouses
• Extended relatives
• Religious leaders
• Neighbours
• Community reputation

This creates situations where private emotions collide with public expectations.

Mushtaq often examines how apparently ordinary domestic conflicts reveal larger questions about power, money, gender and social hierarchy.

Humour Alongside Pain

Although the collection deals with serious subjects, its tone is not uniformly bleak.

The publisher and Booker materials repeatedly note the stories’ dry and gentle humour.

Mushtaq’s characters can be:

• Sharp
• Funny
• Defiant
• Frustrating
• Vulnerable
• Resourceful
• Contradictory

That complexity prevents the stories from reducing people to simple symbols.

The humour also gives the collection energy even when the circumstances being described are painful.

Deepa Bhasthi’s Translation

The English translation is by Deepa Bhasthi, a writer and literary translator based in southern India.

Her translation is an essential part of the book’s international recognition.

The International Booker Prize honours both author and translator, and the 2025 prize was divided equally between Banu Mushtaq and Deepa Bhasthi. Bhasthi became the first Indian translator to win the International Booker Prize.

The judges particularly praised the translation’s ability to preserve the texture of Kannada alongside words and rhythms influenced by other languages used in the communities represented in the stories.

Winner of the International Booker Prize 2025

Heart Lamp was announced as the winner of the International Booker Prize 2025 on 20 May 2025 at London’s Tate Modern.

Its win was historically significant because it became:

• The first short-story collection to win the International Booker Prize
• The first winning work translated from Kannada
• The first International Booker win for publisher And Other Stories
• A prize-winning collaboration between Banu Mushtaq and translator Deepa Bhasthi

The prize judges described the collection as bringing something distinctive to English-language readers through both the stories themselves and the translation.

Literary Fiction in Translation

Heart Lamp is best categorised as:

• Literary Fiction
• Short Stories
• Fiction in Translation
• Indian Literature
• Women’s Fiction
• Contemporary World Literature

It is not a conventional romance, thriller or single-narrative novel.

Readers should expect a collection focused on character, society, family and lived experience.

About Banu Mushtaq

Banu Mushtaq is a Kannada-language writer, lawyer and social activist from Karnataka in southern India.

The Booker Prize Foundation describes her as a major voice in progressive Kannada literature and notes that her writing has been shaped by her experience working with women and confronting issues involving gender, caste, religion and social inequality.

Heart Lamp is the first book-length English translation of her work.

About Deepa Bhasthi

Deepa Bhasthi is a writer and literary translator based in Kodagu, southern India.

She translates from Kannada and also writes essays and cultural criticism.

Her work on Heart Lamp won a PEN Presents award before the collection was published, and she later shared the International Booker Prize 2025 with Banu Mushtaq.

Who Will Enjoy Heart Lamp?

This collection may particularly appeal to readers interested in:

• Literary fiction
• International Booker Prize winners
• Short stories
• Indian literature
• Kannada literature in translation
• Women’s stories
• Family and community fiction
• Contemporary world literature
• Feminist literary fiction
• Fiction in translation

Readers who enjoy character-driven stories about ordinary lives shaped by larger social forces may find the collection especially rewarding.

Content Note

The stories deal with difficult social and family situations.

Themes can include:

• Patriarchal control
• Domestic conflict
• Gender inequality
• Poverty and financial hardship
• Religious and social pressure
• Abandonment
• Emotional distress
• Violence and oppression

The collection is literary fiction for an adult/general audience.

Buy Heart Lamp in Sri Lanka

For readers looking to buy Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq in Sri Lanka, ISBN 9781916751163 identifies the physical And Other Stories paperback edition, translated by Deepa Bhasthi.

Current bookseller metadata repeatedly records approximately 192 pages, around 178–180 g, and dimensions near 19.8 × 12.9 cm.