India's Banu Mushtaq makes history with International Booker win1 hour ago Share Save Cherylann Mollan BBC News, Mumbai Share SaveGetty Images Mushtaq's Heart Lamp poignantly captures the hardships of Muslim women living in southern IndiaIndian writer, lawyer and activist Banu Mushtaq has made history by becoming the first author writing in the Kannada language to win the International Booker prize with her short story anthology, Heart Lamp. Featuring 12 short stories written by Mushtaq between 1990 and 2023, Heart Lamp poignantly captures the hardships of Muslim women living in southern India. "In a literary culture that rewards spectacle, Heart Lamp insists on the value of attention - to lives lived at the edges, to unnoticed choices, to the strength it takes simply to persist. Who is Banu Mushtaq? What does Banu Mushtaq write about?