Who won the Man Booker Prize 2025: the winner from India impressed the jury
22 May 03:58
The Man Booker International Prize 2025, awarded for the best work of fiction translated into English, has been won by Indian author Banu Mushtaq. This is stated on the official website of the prize.
Banu Mushtaq is a lawyer who began writing in the 1970s.
Her collection of short stories Heart Lamp became the first book translated from Kannada to win this prestigious award.
The translation was done by Deepa Bhasti, and the two winners will share a prize fund of £50,000.
What makes this victory special
This is a historic event for several reasons:
- Banu Mushtaq became only the second Indian writer to win the Man Booker International.
- It is the first time that a collection of short stories, not a novel, has won.
- This is also the first time that a book written in Kannada, a language spoken by about 65 million people in the state of Karnataka in southern India, has won the Man Booker.
- Translator Deepa Bhasti is the first Indian translator to win the prize.
What the book is about
Heart Lamp is a collection of 12 short stories written between 1990 and 2023. Each story centers on the lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in South India. According to the author, these works are a deeply emotional response to daily violence, discrimination, social inequality and disenfranchisement.
“My stories are about women – about how religion, society and politics demand unquestioning obedience from them, while inflicting inhuman cruelty on them, turning them into mere servants. The daily incidents reported by the media and the personal experiences I have had have become a source of inspiration for me. The pain, suffering and helpless lives of these women evoke a deep emotional response in me,” Mushtaq said.
The jury’s assessment
The chairman of the jury, British writer Max Porter, noted the innovative nature of the book:
“This is something really new for the English reader. It is a radical translation that shakes up the language, creating new textures in the plurality of English. It challenges and expands our understanding of translation.”
Publication and distribution
The Indian edition of Heart Lamp was published by Penguin Random House India, and in the UK, the independent publisher And Other Stories obtained the rights.
