All Them Dogs

A Novel

A young Irish gangster is caught in a brutal dance between desire and loyalty

Tony Ward is back in Dublin. After five years in England, where he fled after murdering a rival gang member, he returns to find that his mentor is dead and his best friend has gone straight.

Keen to reestablish himself, he jumps at the chance to work for the enforcer of a local crime boss. But Flute Walsh is a far cry from the boy Tony once knew. Drawn to Flute in ways he never expected, Tony finds that the boundaries he thought he understood are breaking down in a world where nothing stays buried and where retribution is just a bullet away.

By turns savage, erotic, and unexpectedly tender, All Them Dogs is a gripping story of violence, lust, and greed that explores one man’s struggles to find balance in an unsparing world.
Praise for All Them Dogs

"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 Wild Horses

“Inescapable and fresh…It’s a brilliant debut from an author sure to one day have a place in the Irish literary canon.” –Library Journal, STARRED review

“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.” –Kirkus, STARRED review

“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, author of the Booker Prize-winning Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha

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, author of the Booker Prize-winning A Brief History of Seven Killings

“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 and All Them Dogs is a stylish, adroit, and gritty debut.” –Anne Enright, author of the Booker Prize-winning The Gathering

“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

“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 Kala

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. 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 favorite gangster movie, as profound as your favorite novel. So sexy and tender and dangerous and poetic and frightening.” –August Thompson, author of Anyone’s Ghost
© Conor Horgan
Djamel White is an Irish writer and editor. He earned an MFA in creative writing from University College Dublin and was fiction editor for the inaugural issue of the literary and art journal Profiles. He has worked as an assistant for New Island Books and has managed one of Ireland’s leading tattoo shops. He lives in Dublin. View titles by Djamel White

About

A young Irish gangster is caught in a brutal dance between desire and loyalty

Tony Ward is back in Dublin. After five years in England, where he fled after murdering a rival gang member, he returns to find that his mentor is dead and his best friend has gone straight.

Keen to reestablish himself, he jumps at the chance to work for the enforcer of a local crime boss. But Flute Walsh is a far cry from the boy Tony once knew. Drawn to Flute in ways he never expected, Tony finds that the boundaries he thought he understood are breaking down in a world where nothing stays buried and where retribution is just a bullet away.

By turns savage, erotic, and unexpectedly tender, All Them Dogs is a gripping story of violence, lust, and greed that explores one man’s struggles to find balance in an unsparing world.

Reviews

Praise for All Them Dogs

"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 Wild Horses

“Inescapable and fresh…It’s a brilliant debut from an author sure to one day have a place in the Irish literary canon.” –Library Journal, STARRED review

“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.” –Kirkus, STARRED review

“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, author of the Booker Prize-winning Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha

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, author of the Booker Prize-winning A Brief History of Seven Killings

“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 and All Them Dogs is a stylish, adroit, and gritty debut.” –Anne Enright, author of the Booker Prize-winning The Gathering

“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

“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 Kala

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. 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 favorite gangster movie, as profound as your favorite novel. So sexy and tender and dangerous and poetic and frightening.” –August Thompson, author of Anyone’s Ghost

Author

© Conor Horgan
Djamel White is an Irish writer and editor. He earned an MFA in creative writing from University College Dublin and was fiction editor for the inaugural issue of the literary and art journal Profiles. He has worked as an assistant for New Island Books and has managed one of Ireland’s leading tattoo shops. He lives in Dublin. View titles by Djamel White
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