Irish writer nominated for Booker Prize with crime thriller novel

The book is the 28-year-old's debut novel, making him the youngest of the authors who made the 2026 longlist.

The literary prize has been awarded to the best work of sustained fiction written in the English language for the past 55 years.

All Them Dogs is the 28-year-old's debut novel. This makes White, born in Lucan in Dublin, the youngest of this year's nominees.

163 submissions were considered, but only 13 books were selected for the longlist.

The Booker Prize panel described All Them Dogs as “a mouthy, ballsy and bracingly unsentimental portrait of West Dublin gangland, set well off the beaten track of the city’s usual literary landmarks”.

Paul Lynch won the award in 2023 for his dystopian novel, Prophet Song.

The full longlist for the 2026 Booker Prize includes:

• All of Them Dogs by Djamel White

• John of John by Douglas Stuart

• Switzy by Emma Cline

• The Vivisectors by Missouri Williams

• The Disappearers by Marlon James

• May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry

• The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley

• Black Bag by Luke Kennard

• The Shadow of the Object by Chloe Aridjis

• The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout

• The Renovation by Kenan Orhan

• The End of Everything by M. John Harrison

• Helen of Nowhere by Makenna Goodman

The six-book shortlist for the 2026 Booker Prize will be announced on Tuesday, 22 September 2026.

What is All Them Dogs about?

Things are different since Tony Ward landed back in town. The West Dublin gangland has changed. His old mentor is dead, and his best pal Kenny Boyle is on the straight and narrow.

After five years keeping quiet across the way, Tony is keen to reinstate himself, and when the opportunity arises to work side by side with Darren 'Flute' Walsh, a top enforcer of notorious crime boss Aengus Lavelle, it feels like a no-brainer.

Biting off more than he can chew has never bothered Tony Ward, but Flute Walsh is not the meek, quiet boy Tony remembers from school. Brooding, stoic, and unpredictably dangerous, Tony finds himself drawn to his new associate in more ways than one.

With retribution from his past actions always close in the rear view, the protection offered by Flute's standing in the gang is crucial. But how safe is Tony really, when a mutual attraction starts to complicate matters?