Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq, translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi, is the 2025 winner of the International Booker Prize, the world’s most influential award for translated fiction. The winning book, the first collection of short stories to be awarded the prize, was announced by bestselling Booker Prize-longlisted author Max Porter, Chair of the 2025 Judges, at a ceremony at London’s Tate Modern on Tuesday, 20th May 2025.

What is the International Booker Prize?

The International Booker Prize recognises the vital work of translation, with the £50,000 prize money divided equally between the author and the translator. 

What is Heart Lamp about?

Written between 1990 and 2023, Heart Lamp’s 12 stories chronicle the lives of women and girls in patriarchal communities in southern India. Mushtaq, a lawyer and major voice within progressive Kannada literature, is a prominent champion of women’s rights and a protester against caste and religious oppression in India, and was inspired to write the stories by the experiences of women who came to her seeking help. She becomes the second Indian author to win the International Booker Prize after Geetanjali Shree in 2022. 

Heart Lamp is the first book translated from Kannada, a language spoken by an estimated 65 million people, to be nominated for the prize. Deepa Bhasthi becomes the first Indian translator to win the International Booker. Sheffield-based independent publisher And Other Stories wins the prize for the first time. 

Max Porter, Chair of the International Booker Prize 2025 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, caste, power and oppression. 

"This was the book the judges really loved, right from our first reading. It’s been a joy to listen to the evolving appreciation of these stories from the different perspectives of the jury. We are thrilled to share this timely and exciting winner of the International Booker Prize 2025 with readers around the world."

The Shortlist for the 2025 International Booker Prize

On the 8th April the International Booker Prize 2025 shortlist was announced. This year's shortlist is said to provide "a ‘miraculous lens through which to view human experience". Check out the six authors who made it to the shortlist.

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