A collection of stories about Indian Muslim women’s daily struggles with bothersome husbands, mothers, and religious leaders has won this year’s International Booker Prize, a prestigious award for fiction translated into English.
Banu Mushtaq’s “Heart Lamp,” translated from the original Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi, is the first story collection to receive the award. The prize includes £50,000, approximately $66,700, which will be shared equally between the author and translator.
Established in 2005, the International Booker Prize was initially awarded for an author's entire body of work, with Alice Munro being one of the early recipients. Since 2016, the award has been given to a single book translated into English and published in Britain or Ireland within the previous 12 months. “Heart Lamp” marks the first collection to win this recognition.
Max Porter, the chair of this year’s judging panel, noted in a news conference that “Heart Lamp” presents “extraordinary accounts of patriarchal systems and resistance,” and highlighted the unique quality of Bhasthi’s translation.
Porter explained that most translations aim to be “invisible,” so readers are unaware that the book was not originally written in English. However, he emphasized that Bhasthi’s translation was distinct, filled with Indian expressions that imparted “an extraordinary vibrancy” to the collection’s 12 stories.
“A lot of English readers will find it unlike anything they’ve ever read before,” Porter remarked.
“Heart Lamp” triumphed over five other shortlisted titles, including Solvej Balle’s “On the Calculation of Volume: 1,” translated from Danish by Barbara J. Haveland, and Vincenzo Latronico’s “Perfection,” translated from Italian by Sophie Hughes.
In contrast to the acclaim received by these novels, “Heart Lamp” garnered little media attention prior to the announcement, with only one major British newspaper providing a dedicated review. Lucy Popescu in The Financial Times remarked that Mushtaq’s “deceptively simple tales decry the subjugation of women while celebrating their resilience.”
Kate McLoughlin in The Times Literary Supplement described Mushtaq’s stories as “searing, phantasmagorical, unclassifiable.”
The title story features a woman seeking her family’s permission to leave her adulterous husband, only to be dismissed, leading her to contemplate suicide. Another story, “Black Cobras,” depicts a woman asking a religious leader to compel her husband to cover their child’s medical expenses, only to be ignored.
Mushtaq, 77, stated in a recent interview that her stories address how religion, society, and politics enforce unquestioning obedience on women, often resulting in inhumane treatment that reduces them to subordinates.
Having worked as a lawyer, journalist, and activist, Mushtaq shared that her stories are inspired by news reports and women she has encountered in her work. “My heart itself is my field of study,” she expressed. “The more intensely the incidence affects me, the more deeply and emotionally I write.”
Porter emphasized that Mushtaq’s stories go beyond simple portrayals of oppressed Muslim women, showcasing bravery, wit, and satire. He concluded that they “challenge Western stereotypes of Muslim life in the most beautiful and exciting way.”