International Booker Winner 

And the winner is…

Congratulations to Banu Mushtaq and her translator, Deepa Bhasthi, winners of the International Booker Prize 2025 for Heart Lamp, the first collection of short stories to win the prize! It’s also the first book translated from Kannada (a language spoken by an estimated 65 million people) to be nominated for the prize, which celebrates the best novels or collections of short stories translated into English and published in the UK/Ireland. 

Max Porter, International Booker Prize 2025 Chair of Judges, says:

‘This was the book the judges really loved, right from our first reading…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…We are thrilled to share this timely and exciting winner of the International Booker Prize 2025 with readers around the world.’

You can order Heart Lamp via our online shop for delivery to your door – or pop into one of our bookshops to place your order there.