Daijiworld Media Network - London

London, May 21: Heart Lamp, a collection of short stories by Kannada writer Banu Mushtaq, has been awarded the prestigious International Booker Prize for translated fiction. The English translation by Deepa Bhasthi marks a historic win — not only is Heart Lamp the first short story collection to claim the honour, but Bhasthi also becomes the first Indian translator to win the prize.

Presented at a ceremony at the Tate Modern in London on Tuesday evening, the £50,000 award is shared equally between Mushtaq and Bhasthi. A video of actor Ambika Mod reading an excerpt from the book was screened as part of the celebrations.

Originally penned in Kannada, the official language of Karnataka, the 12 stories in Heart Lamp delve into the interior worlds of women living in patriarchal communities across southern India. Bhasthi selected these stories from a larger body of work spanning six collections and three decades of Mushtaq’s literary career.

Max Porter, author and chair of this year’s judging panel, praised the book as “something genuinely new for English readers: a radical translation” of “beautiful, busy, life-affirming stories.”

Bhasthi, who has long been an advocate for translation that carries the rhythm and resonance of the source language, described her approach as “translating with an accent.” In an earlier interview with Scroll.in, she explained: “It reminds the reader that they are engaging with a world set in another culture, without exoticising it. So the English in Heart Lamp has a very deliberate Kannada hum to it.”

The International Booker Prize annually celebrates outstanding works of fiction translated into English from other languages. This year’s shortlist featured:

• On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle, translated by Barbara J Haveland

• Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix, translated by Helen Stevenson

• Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami, translated by Asa Yoneda

• Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, translated by Sophie Hughes

• A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre, translated by Mark Hutchinson

Past laureates of the prize include Jenny Erpenbeck and translator Michael Hofmann (Kairos, 2023), Olga Tokarczuk and Jennifer Croft, Lucas Rijneveld and Michele Hutchison, and Han Kang with Deborah Smith.

With Heart Lamp, Mushtaq’s vivid portrayals of women’s lives — and Bhasthi’s textured, culturally sensitive translation — offer international readers an intimate look at a deeply rooted Kannada literary tradition now receiving global recognition.