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Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Caine Prize, Litro revisits the award-winning story that redefined African childhood narratives.
Fourteen years after it first startled readers, NoViolet Bulawayo’s Hitting Budapest has been named the Best of Caine — chosen to represent a quarter century of prize-winning stories.
When six children slip out of Paradise to steal guavas in Hitting Budapest, they carry more than hunger. They carry the distance between two worlds, the weight of fences, and the courage fruit can lend. This week the story returned to the spotlight, awarded the 2025 Best of Caine Prize at the inaugural Words Across Waters Afro Lit Fest in London.
Accepting the prize, Bulawayo called it “a moment to reflect on the journey.” Back in 2011, Hitting Budapest launched her career, becoming the first chapter of We Need New Names and eventually carrying her voice to global audiences. Yet in their original form, the children remain most alive: daring each other across gravel and durawalls, sharp with hunger and wonder.
“Budapest is like a different country. A country where people who are not like us live,” says Darling, the nine-year-old narrator. “It’s the fruit that gives us courage, otherwise we wouldn’t dare be here.”
The judging panel — chaired by Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah with novelist Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi and producer Tony Tagoe — reached their decision swiftly. For Litro, what lingers is not only the recognition, but the reminder that a short story can still shake us, years on.
About “Hitting Budapest”
In “Hitting Budapest,” a band of children — Bastard, Chipo, Godknows, Sbho, Stina, and the narrator — slip across Mzilikazi Road into the gated wealth of Budapest in search of guavas. What they find is hunger, wonder, and the sharp border between worlds.
“We are on our way to Budapest: Bastard and Chipo and Godknows and Sbho and Stina and me… There are guavas to steal in Budapest, and right now I’d die for guavas, or anything for that matter.”
Bulawayo’s prose channels children’s perspective with unsentimental clarity — a voice that made the 2011 win defining, and which resonates anew in 2025.
About the Author
NoViolet Bulawayo won the Caine Prize in 2011 for “Hitting Budapest” and is the author of the novels Glory and We Need New Names. She earned her MFA at Cornell University and now teaches there. Her work has been shortlisted for major prizes including the Booker and Women’s Prize.
About the Caine Prize
The Caine Prize for African Writing is a charity dedicated to bringing African writing to wider audiences through its annual award and public programmes, including an online editing programme and a rotating writers’ workshop across the continent. The prize was established in memory of Sir Michael Caine and first awarded in 2000.
