SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
This week, a woman who was relatively unknown in her own country was awarded one of the most prestigious prizes in all of literature, the International Booker Prize. It's awarded to books translated into English. The book is called "Heart Lamp." The author is from India, which is where correspondent Diaa Hadid lives. She is on the line to tell us more about it. And a warning, this conversation does include a discussion about suicide. Hi, Diaa.
DIAA HADID, BYLINE: Hi, Scott.
DETROW: So tell us a bit about the book and about the author.
HADID: Yeah. Banu Mushtaq is in her 70s and she's been writing stories for decades in her mother tongue, Kannada. It's spoken by tens of millions of people in southwest India. But in a country of 1.4 billion people, Kannada is a regional language, so Mushtaq wasn't well known outside of her own literary circles. That is, until translator Deepa Bhasthi offered to work with her, and they picked out a selection of stories she'd written over three decades. And that collection, called "Heart Lamp," created a buzz.
The stories simply sketch out moments of the lives of Kannada-speaking Muslim women, and these are lives defined by casual misogyny and sly resistance. The language is very simple but textured. It's written in the rhythm and slang of Kannada dialect, and you get a sense of that as Mushtaq spoke after she won the Booker International.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BANU MUSHTAQ: This moment feels like a thousand fireflies lighting up a single sky - brief, brilliant and utterly collective.
HADID: A thousand fireflies lighting up a single sky.
DETROW: That's such an evocative image. I love it. How was the book received in India?
HADID: With a lot of joy in literary circles. There's something about Mushtaq's unlikely and late success that's been celebrated, but also because of how vividly these stories are written. Like, Kanika Sharma is a writer and journalist, and she interviewed the author and translator before they won. And she says the book stays with her.
KANIKA SHARMA: It really feels as if I'm watching theater and these characters are in front of me and I'm observing their lives. It just doesn't feel as if it's a story written for the page.
DETROW: Diaa, I can tell from the way you're telling me about this that you have read and appreciated this book yourself. Are there any stories that stand out to you in the collection?
HADID: A few, but I think the one that couldn't leave me, and many others, is called "Heart Lamp." And it's about a woman whose husband takes up with a nurse after decades of marriage and children. And her family rejects the idea of her leaving him, says she'll ruin their reputation, and they tell her it's better if she ends her own life. And that evening, she douses herself with kerosene. Her eldest daughter rushes towards her. Now, Ambika Mod is a British actress. She reads out the last part of the scene as part of a presentation for the book, for the award.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
AMBIKA MOD: (Reading) She held her mother's legs. Salma was sobbing and a little baby was crying on the ground. Meryn looked at them and she fought to be free of that strange force that had enveloped her. And then the matchbox fell from her hand.
DETROW: I mean, this - some of the subject matter does sound very intense.
HADID: Yeah. Some of the stories are, frankly. Some of the other stories, though, are really sly and funny and undercut these petty men who lord over women.
DETROW: Is it fair to say that a lot of this touches on sensitive ground, though, you know, these themes of Muslim women being mistreated at the hands of Muslim men? I'm gathering that probably many people would object to that type of characterization.
HADID: Yeah. Banu Mushtaq has said some folks think she won a prize by denigrating Muslim men. But these stories come from her own experiences and of women she met as an advocate. And the thing is, Muslims form 1 in every 6 Indians. That's more than 240 million people. Their experiences are incredibly diverse. One book cannot speak for all of them. And I did ask another prominent writer, Saba Naqvi, what she thought about all this. She happens to be Muslim. She says the strength of these stories are in how grounded they are.
SABA NAQVI: There are many, many books which have come out about being Muslim. But this one tells it in another way because people don't often live their lives with the politics inside their head. They just live their lives in their neighborhoods, within their families. So that's what's remarkable.
HADID: And another literary critic, Sumana Mukherjee, notes, like so often in India, where the Hindu nationalist government in power has used divisive language to describe Muslims, what's rare about this book is that it's by a Muslim woman speaking plainly and hoping to create empathy.
DETROW: That is NPR's Diaa Hadid in Mumbai. Thank you so much.
HADID: You're welcome, Scott.
DETROW: And if you or someone you know is at crisis, please call, text or chat with the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.
(SOUNDBITE OF LONNIE LISTON SMITH, ADRIAN YOUNGE AND ALI SHAHEED MUHAMMAD'S "LOVE CAN BE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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