Banu Mushtaq’s ‘Heart Lamp’, translated by Deepa Bhasthi, wins the 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 book, 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. It is also the first collection of short stories to win. In 2022, Geetanjali Shree’s Ret Samadhi, translated into English by Daisy Rockwell as Tomb of Sand, won the International Booker Prize.

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.

Max Porter, International Booker Prize 2025 Chair of judges, said: “'Heart Lamp is something genuinely new for English readers. A radical translation which ruffles language, to create new textures in a plurality of Englishes. It challenges and expands our understanding of translation. These beautiful, busy, life-affirming stories rise from Kannada, interspersed with the extraordinary socio-political richness of other languages and dialects. It speaks of women’s lives, reproductive rights, faith,...

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