Banu Mushtaq’s ‘Heart Lamp’, translated by Deepa Bhasthi, wins 2025 International Booker Prize

Banu Mushtaq’s Heart Lamp, a collection of Kannada short stories translated into English by Deepa Bhasthi, has won the 2025 International Booker Prize 2022.

It is the first ever Kannada novel, and the second from India as well as South Asia, to win the award, which is given to translated works of fiction published in the UK and Ireland. In 2022, Geetanjali Shree’s Ret Samadhi, translated into English by Daisy Rockwell as Tomb of Sand, won the International Booker Prize 2022.

We're delighted to announce that the winner of the #InternationalBooker2025 is Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq, translated by Deepa Bhasthi.

Here's everything you need to know about the book: https://t.co/wPRGqgrQyc pic.twitter.com/tVFxwSGhZo— The Booker Prizes (@TheBookerPrizes) May 20, 2025

The prize money of £50,000 will be shared equally between the author and the translator. The announcement was made on Tuesday night in London.

The shortlist, spanning five languages – French, Dutch, Italian, Japanese, and Kannada – comprised the following books:

• A Leopard-Skin Hat, Anne Serre, translated from the French by Mark Hutchinson, New Directions Publishing.

• Heart Lamp: Selected Stories, Banu Mushtaq, translated from Kannada by Deeba Bhasthi, And Other Stories.

• On the Calculation of Volume, Solvej Balle, translated from the Dutch by Barbara J Haveland, Faber and Faber.

• Perfection, Vincenzo Latronico, translated from the Italian by Sophie Hughes, Fitzcarraldo Editions.

• Small Boat, Vincent Delecroix, translated from French by Helen Stevenson, Peepal Tress Press.

• Under the Eye...

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