Author Banu Mushtaq © Alberto Pezzali/AP
On Tuesday, May 20, HEART LAMP (India Penguin) by Banu Mushtak, translated by Deepa Bhasthi, won the 2025 International Booker Prize. The winning title, a collection of 12 short stories which exquisitely capture the everyday lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India, is the first collection of short stories to be awarded the prize and the first winner originally written in Kannada.