“Africa’s most important literary award.” — International Herald Tribune

“Entertaining” Deserves to be widely read.” — Sunday Independent, South Africa

“It provokes and challenges.” — Harare News, Zimbabwe

“Dazzling and splendidly diverse” — The Times

“The Caine Prize is regarded as ‘Africa’s leading literary award.’ The eighteenth Caine Prize was selected from 148 entries from 22 African countries. This collection highlights the five short listers, with 11 additional stories chosen from the Caine Prize workshop, a 12-day retreat for new and established writers held, this year, in Tanzania. Sudan’s Bushra al-Fadil won the 2017 Caine Prize with ‘The Story of the Girl Whose Birds Flew Away,’ an atmospheric meditation on elusive (and illusive) connections amid chaos. Al-Fadil’s co- short listers were Lesley Nneka Arimah’s ‘Who Will Greet You at Home,’ which introduces a baby made of human hair; Chikodili Emelumadu’s ‘Bush Baby,’ featuring a man terrorized by his careless greed; Arinze Ifeakandu’s ‘God’s Children Are Little Broken Things,’ about a student’s homosexual awakening (and suppression); and Magogodi oaMphela Makhene’s ‘The Virus,’ about the price of survival after global destruction. Of the latter 11, Esther Karim Mngodo’s titular ‘The Goddess of Mtwara’ is a love story that goes awry. A laudable a collection this is as both introduction and celebration of contemporary African writing… this is an admirable and essential gateway to current African fiction.” — Booklist