All Them Dogs

Reviews / Votes

One of the debuts of the year * IRISH TIMES * In the best Irish style, Djamel White uses a local voice to blast through language and make it new. His hero, Tony Ward, is a bittersweet confection of self-defeating swagger . . . a stylish, adroit and gritty debut -- Anne Enright, Booker Prize-winning author of THE GATHERING All Them Dogs is all that- a book you inhale, devour, grapple with, and reel from more than read. A coming-of-age novel for an age that comes breathing down the back of your neck. The kind of book where everything is on the edge of a knife and where love, like death, is either a kiss or a bullet away -- Marlon James, Booker Prize-winning author of A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEVEN KILLINGS Exhilarating and often frightening - Djamel White's first novel is a hugely satisfying read. It adds new streets to Dublin's literary map -- Roddy Doyle, Booker Prize-winning author of PADDY CLARKE HA HA HA As beautiful and tough as an uncut jewel, this kinetic and claustrophobic novel takes you deep into a darkness where desire, sex and violence become dangerously, seductively tangled -- Colin Walsh, author of Sunday Times bestseller, KALA A moving, fast-paced novel about masculinity, violence and vulnerability, set in parts of Dublin that rarely appear in literature and written in prose at once glittering and tender -- Sarah Moss, author of GHOST WALL Dublin is Vice City in Djamel White's frenetic and exhilarating debut novel. All Them Dogs has the energy and drama of a shoot-out -- Rob Doyle, author of CAMEO All Them Dogs is a claustrophobic masterpiece-an emotionally devastating literary crime novel set in Dublin's underworld, where violence, poverty, and toxic masculinity form a brutal backdrop to a brilliantly tender love story. Here is an intimate tale of violence and desire that is as sharp as the knives wielded on the page. Djamel White has taken a familiar genre and turned it into something bright and new, burning like white phosphorus -- Isaac Fitzgerald, NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of DIRTBAG, MASSACHUSETTS All Them Dogs is as compelling as your favourite gangster movie, as profound as your favourite novel. So sexy and tender and dangerous and poetic and frightening -- August Thompson, author of ANYONE'S GHOST Djamel White's outstanding debut charts the giddy, chaotic rise and fall of Tony Ward, a sensitive, volatile gangster vivid with ambition and desire. Propulsive, incendiary storytelling renders viscerally the stylish squalor and delirious brutality of Dublin's underworld; Ward's supple, engaging voice blends kinetic force with perceptive, lyrical insight. A dazzling, unsettling, fever dream of a novel -- Declan Hughes A pummelling debut * RTE GUIDE * White is backed by serious pedigree in the publishing world . . . There will be a lot of anticipation for All Them Dogs * IRISH INDEPENDENT WEEKEND ONE * [A] breathless debut . . . Dublin's answer to Top Boy * THE BOOKSELLER * With care and verve, Djamel White brings vividly to life the genial malice and ambient dread that infuses All Them Dogs world of feuding West Dublin gangsters -- Colin Barrett, author of Booker-longlisted * Wild Houses * An electrifying debut about divided loyalties and unexpected desire * Economist * Explosive * The Observer * Raw, colourful, and fizzing with a chaotic energy, this is by all accounts a masterpiece of a debut * VIP Magazine * What a debut. All Them Dogs takes place in Djamel White's beautifully lived-in and scuffed-up world of West Dublin in the years just before the pandemic . . . the denouement is quite astounding * Shortlist * Edgy, explosive debut * The Gloss * An inescapable and fresh noir novel . . . It's a brilliant debut from an author sure to one day have a place in the Irish literary canon * Library Journal, starred review * A debut novel of rare force and control. This is a revelation: a mob thriller steeped in the gallows humor of working-class Dublin, yet with notes of tenderness to temper the violence . . . White keeps us balanced on a knife edge, and the novel's final revelations churn for days * Kirkus Reviews * Djamel White's gritty debut employs street-level Irish vernacular to tell a story of a queer Irish gangster who can't get out of his own way * Goodreads * White debuts with a riveting and tender literary thriller about a young man exploring his sexuality while trying to find his footing in the crime world . . . It's a memorable story of a man's ill-fated attempt to transcend his hopelessness * Publishers Weekly * If novelists are supposed to look for the stories that haven't been told, then White succeeds admirably. It's Love/Hate meets Brokeback Mountain . . . The dialogue is trenchant, and the moments of high drama gripping . . . Every year, Ireland delivers a fresh batch of debut novelists, many of whom won't survive the rigours of the publishing industry to produce second, third or fourth novels. But Djamel White, on the basis of All Them Dogs, seems destined to be with us for a long time yet * Irish Independent * All Them Dogs is filled with a street lyricism that mines masculinity. . . There's a poetry on the pages here that tenderises even the most hardened characters, as they alternately strut and cower at the mercy of criminal impulses . . . a magical piece of writing * Irish Times * If novelists are supposed to look for the stories that haven't been told, then White succeeds admirably . . . Tony is a compelling narrator and White displays great skill as he builds the tension . . . Djamel White on the basis of All Them Dogs seems destined to be with us for a long time yet * Sunday Independent * [White's] injected a thrilling hit of illicit queerness into an ultra-masculine world where reputation is everything * Dazed * The novel is excellent - and terrifying - because we recognise something disturbingly relatable about the illogical ways in which Tony acts. Fans of Michael Magee, Kevin Barry, and Love/Hate will enjoy this one * Hot Press * After reading All Them Dogs, one thing is clear: Djamel White will be stealing readers away as fast as the bullets escape the guns in his novel . . . White's debut seamlessly transforms from crime fiction to gangland romance to erotic thriller before collapsing into tragedy * AnOther * Djamel White is poised as a powerful new voice in Irish literature. His ability to conjure a downbeat world of rundown estates, boxing gyms and tattoo parlours is truly compelling, and there's a real dynamism to his prose that combines street slang with poetic simile. Like its sharklike protagonist, the narrative rarely stops moving, and the strength of the novel lies in this episodic quality: the gritty realism of each scene is confidently portrayed and exuberantly realised * Guardian * Electricity pulsates through All Them Dogs with an intensity and a sense of urgency that propels the reader forward to the very fitting ending. Prepare yourself for an adrenaline-fuelled, intense rush, a novel that will not allow you to take a breath. Gritty, impacting, emotive, and frighteningly authentic, All Them Dogs is a formidable and assured debut * Irish Examiner * It has the tyre-squealing thrill of a hit gangster TV series. It has its own buzzing lyricism . . . With his adrenaline-fuelled debut, White has written a scorching page-turner. Buckle up and enjoy the ride * RTE Guide *