Banu Mushtaq’s ‘Heart Lamp’, winning the 2025 International Booker Prize — the first ever for a Kannada work, marks the triumph of the power of vernacular literature over systemic biases
The other five books on the shortlist included ‘On the Calculation of Volume I' by Solvej Balle, ‘Small Boat' by Vincent Delecroix, ‘Under the Eye of the Big Bird' by Hiromi Kawakami, ‘Perfection' by Vincenzo Latronico, and ‘A Leopard-Skin Hat' by Anne Serre
