HeartLamp
Year 2025 | Book 16/52 Book Review : Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq (translated by Deepa Bhasthi) Winner of the International Booker Prize 2025, Heart Lamp is a poignant collection of 12 short stories that illuminate the inner and outer lives of Muslim women in South India. Banu Mushtaq’s writing, layered with subtle irony and quiet heartbreak, captures the silent burdens daughters and mothers carry. Some stories are strikingly universal, others more rooted in Kannada cultural contexts. While the translation conveys much, I did feel a slight dilution of emotional resonance. A few stories felt repetitive, but the best ones evoke empathy and leave a lasting glow. #HeartLamp #BanuMushtaq #DeepaBhasthi #BookerPrize2025 #InternationalBookerPrize #TranslatedFiction #ShortStoryCollection #IndianLiterature #KannadaLiterature #WomenWriters #BooksInTranslation #FictionThatMatters #LiteraryFiction #StorytellingWithSoul #ReadMoreBooks #BookReview #Bibliophile