Heart Lamp is a career-spanning selection of eleven stories published originally in the Kannada language between 1990 and 2023. Mushtaq began writing within the progressive protest literary movement in southwestern India in the 1970s: critical of the caste and class system, the Bandaya movement gave rise to influential Dalit and Muslim writers, of whom Mushtaq was one of the only women. She went on to become a lawyer, though she continued to write and publish stories, and to be recognised with countless awards within India. Her dedication to dismantling caste and religious oppression, and to championing women's rights, are strong themes in both her careers, and it's the everyday lives of Muslim girls and women--daughters, homemakers, surgeons, lawyers--she so exquisitely cherishes and captures in this collection. Mushtaq's dry and gentle humor, her relatable and intensely real personalities, and her fiery social criticism mark her as an astonishing writer and observer of human nature, whose stories build disconcerting emotional heights out of a plain but rich spoken style. This is a collection sure to be read for years to come.
