Book Review: Heart Lamp: Stories Too Familiar, Yet Still Unheard

My latest read (a bit delayed, but never mind), winner of the 2025 Booker Prize, Heart Lamp is a collection of selected stories by Banu Mustaq, translated by Deepa Bhasthi, originally written in Kannada between 1990 and 2023.

As promised, it shines a light on the everyday struggles of Muslim women, focusing on gender inequality, patriarchy, oppression, domestic violence, and more.

Now, is it worth a Booker Prize? Honestly, I’m not the best person to comment on that. But here’s what I felt—many of these stories felt familiar, maybe even too familiar, if you’ve grown up in India.

Tales of patriarchy, domestic abuse, women belittling women… we have all seen or heard these around us.

So, what makes Heart Lamp special?

Perhaps the fact that in 2025, we are still reading and writing about these miseries. It’s disheartening to realize how much hasn’t changed, how women’s pain continues to be normalized, ignored, or silenced.

This book makes you pause and reflect: how far have we really come as humans? Clearly, there’s still a long way to go in learning empathy and respecting every life.

Will we get there someday? Let’s hope so. ✨
Meanwhile, do pick up Heart Lamp (not to “enjoy”), to understand more deeply the simple lives of women around us.

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