Zimbabwean writer NoViolet Bulawayo won the prestigious Caine Prize for her short story Hitting Budapest, in which a group of children head from Paradise, the slum neighbourhood in Zimbabwe in which they live, to Budapest, a posh neighbourhood, in order to steal guavas.

Eventually, this story became the first chapter in her debut novel, We Need New Names. The novel focuses on one of the children, Darling, who moves from Paradise – where her family and others are living after the Mugabe regime has rendered them homeless – to live with her aunt in Detroit in the United States.

The novel chronicles Darling’s coming-of-age as an immigrant to the USA, and how this impacts her relationship with those closest to her: her family and friends.

This book catapulted Bulawayo to instant acclaim as well as a variety of literary awards; it was shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker, and won the Etisalat Prize, the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, and a Betty Trask Award.

It also received a US National Book Award in the 5 under 35 category. In a review in the New York Times, Michiko Kakutani called the novel “deeply felt and fiercely written”.

Published in 2013.