Book review: Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq

HEART LAMP, Penguin Books, a set of short stories written by Banu Mushtaq,  translated by Deepa Bhasthi.

Simply put, these are some of the most moving stories I have read recently, an intimate look at the lives of  Muslim women in Karnataka`s villages. These  braveheart women  navigate difficult-by-default lives,  with the multiple chains of poverty, orthodoxy, chauvinism, illiteracy shackling their slender feet.

The universality of a woman`s pleasures and pain is emphasised with sensitivity, as are the betrayals, scorn, disrespect, she faces, balanced elsewhere by love and understanding. The messaging in these stories are gentle but lance-sharp.

Banu Mushtaq, veteran writer, activist and lawyer,  writes of these women`s strengths, weaknesses, pragmatism and courage in the simplest of prose, totally free of any embellishment, which makes it all the more hard-hitting. Just as Deepa Bhasthi`s cleaving to colloquialisms lets the author`s voice come through clear as a clarion.

Fun Fact: Deepa Bhasthi`s  translation of Banu Mushtaq`s stories won her the English PEN Translates award in 2024.

These are powerful slice-of-Muslim-life stories, and I for one, am rooting for Banu Mushtaq at the Booker turnstile.