Heart Lamp

These are twelve stories Banu Mushtaq wrote between 1990 and 2023, picked by translator Deepa Bhasthi from six collections published in Kannada, the language of Karnataka in southern India.

The setting is everyday life in the region's Muslim families. At the center are the women, up against patriarchy, inequality, faith and the weight of the community. The rules almost always tilt one way, and they know it.

Mushtaq writes with anger, but also with dry humor. Her women push back however they can, sometimes with a sharp line, sometimes with a small gesture. The title story grew out of something that happened in the author's own life.

The translation deliberately leaves many Kannada, Urdu and Arabic words untranslated, so readers can hear the sound of that world. Stories include "Stone Slabs for Shaista Mahal," "Red Lungi," "High-Heeled Shoe" and "Be a Woman Once, Oh Lord."