Heart Lamp: Selected Stories

Mushtaq makes her English-language debut with this virtuosic collection, shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, about the public and private lives of women in southern India’s Islamic communities. In “A Taste of Heaven,” a wryly humorous tale of three children trying to comfort their rapidly declining great-aunt, the children tell her she’s already in heaven and that the Pepsi she’s drinking is aab-e-kausar, the water of a river in Paradise. Elsewhere, Mushtaq lands gut-wrenching social critiques, as in the title story, about a mother who resolves to self-immolate after her family refuses to support her choice to leave her unfaithful husband. In “The Shroud,” a wealthy housewife agrees to bring her cleaning woman a funeral shroud from Saudi Arabia, forgets to do it, and becomes inconsolable with guilt when the woman dies. In “Black Cobras,” a woman left destitute after her husband leaves her learns her rights under Sharia from the educated woman she does menial labor for, then tries to petition the local mosque for help. The stories are united by a keen eye for the interplay between their characters’ social circumstances and inner lives, as religious authority and economic class exert their influence. It’s an excellent introduction to an author of rare talent. (Apr.)