Djamel White’s debut novel has secured a place on the 2026 Booker Prize longlist, making the 28-year-old Dubliner the youngest nominee for this year’s £50,000 prize.
All Them Dogs, described by the Guardian as ‘a tale of drug deals, bad choices and queer desire’, follows a man returning to west Dublin after being on the run for five years because he killed someone in a gang fight.
Selected from 163 entries, the judges called it ‘a mouthy, ballsy and bracingly unsentimental portrait of west Dublin gangland, set well off the beaten track of the city’s usual literary landmarks’. They described Djamel as ‘an impressive stylist’ with ‘an ear for dialogue that is both racy and real, and a gift for atmospheric description that feels at once inventive and classically grounded’.
After leaving school at 17, Djamel volunteered at the non-profit literary organisation Fighting Words. He went on to achieve a BA in English and Creative Writing and an MFA in Creative Writing from University College Dublin (UCD). He has also been a recipient of a Literature Bursary Award, as well as an Agility Award from the Arts Council of Ireland. He described the Booker nomination as ‘a bit mad’.
The longlisting has triggered significant media interest, with Djamel already featured in interviews on Newstalk, Today FM and RTE Radio, alongside print coverage in the Irish Times, Sunday Times Ireland, and Hotpress.
The shortlist will be announced on September 22, with the winner revealed on November 9.
All Them Dogs is available now.