The International Booker Prize is the most prestigious annual award that celebrates translated fiction in English, being awarded to the best long form novel or short story collection that has been translated into English. It centers both authors and translators, with the prize money being split equally between the two. According to data compiled by the Booker Foundation, readers under the age of 35 make up nearly half (48%) of all translated fiction purchases. This means that the International Booker Prize is highly relevant, and highlights what new generations find important and enjoyable.
Six books were shortlisted as of the 8th of April, with the winner announced yesterday (May 20th) at the Tate Modern in London. These shortlisted titles were:
- On the Calculation of Volume I, written by Solvej Balle, translated from Danish by Barbara J. Haveland.
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- First in a planned septology of novels, a woman is trapped in a time loop, desperate to escape.
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- Small Boat, written by Vincent Delecroix, translated from French by Helen Stevenson.
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- Based on a true story, a group of migrants crossing the channel call the French authorities for help and are wrongly told they should call the British authorities instead. After the deaths of 27 people, an investigation is undertaken.
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- Under the Eye of the Big Bird, written by Hiromi Kawakami, translated from Japanese by Asa Yoneda.
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- The human race is near extinction. Some children are factory grown from animal cells, others photosynthesise like plants. The future depends on the interbreeding of these and other beings, but it is uncertain if community will persist.
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- Perfection, written by Vincenzo Latronico, translated from Italian by Sophie Hughes.
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- When a millennial expat couple grows bored with their picture-perfect life, they attempt more and more steps to try and escape it.
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- Heart Lamp, written by Banu Mushtaq, translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi.
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- Inspired by her time working as a lawyer and journalist, 12 short stories highlight the lives of Muslim girls and women in South Indian communities. As the women within these stories realise something within their lives is missing, they begin to reclaim their future.
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- A Leopard-Skin Hat, written by Anne Serre, translated from French by Mark Hutchinson.
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- The narrator develops an intense friendship with his childhood friend who suffers from severe psychological disorders.
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This is the first time a book written in Kannada, a language spoken by 38 million people, predominantly in Southern India, has been featured. Furthermore, for the first time, all six shortlisted books have been published by independent publishers. This emphasises the growing quality and popularity of smaller-scale publishing houses, taking the monopoly away from larger corporate publishers and opening the doors for new and revolutionary works of literature.
And Other Stories, the company that published Heart Lamp, celebrate their first International Booker win. Based here in Sheffield and calling themselves ‘shamelessly literary’, they are a relatively new publishing house that decide many of their new publications from reading groups in other countries, as well as prioritizing literary quality and making publishing more accessible. While risk-averse bigger publishing houses are more focused on what will get internet-famous the fastest, And Other Stories and publishers like it are bringing forward new, exciting and eye-opening stories from around the world.
With the announcement of Heart Lamp as the winner, boundaries for writers and translators of colour have been broken. Not only is it the first time a book written in Kannada has been shortlisted, let alone won, but Deepa Bhasthi is the first Indian translator to win the International Booker Prize. Banu Mushtaq, the author, is not just a writer but a lawyer and activist in the state of Karnataka in South India, and her short stories, written across the last three decades, are deeply inspired by her experiences. This award, accepted by two women of colour, is a significant achievement: Bhasthi told the BBC she hoped this win would encourage more literature translated to and from Kannada and other South Indian languages. The 2025 judges said about Heart Lamp that it “returns us to the great pleasures of reading […] deceptively simple, the stories hold immense emotional, moral and socio-political weight, urging us to dig deeper”. Heart Lamp is a worthy winner of this prestigious award, and its success brings more potential for women of colour and independent publishers to have their voices heard in literary spaces.
