Indian translator makes history with International Booker shortlist

This year's International Booker Prize, one of the world's most prestigious literary awards, shines a unique spotlight on Kannada, the official language of the southern Indian state of Karnataka, in the form of Deepa Bhasthi's English translation of "Heart Lamp," a collection of 12 stories by the Indian writer Banu Mushtaq.

Bhasthi's translation, which won the English PEN Translates award in 2024, is the first work by an Indian translator to make the shortlist for the International Booker Prize, awarded annually to a book translated into English, and is the only work in this year's shortlist that is not a novel. The winner will be announced in London on May 20.