Irish author Djamel White's novel 'All Them Dogs' is one of 13 titles to have been nominated for the Booker Prize 2026 longlist.
The 13 selected works of 'superb long-form fiction,' known as the 'Booker Dozen,' were chosen from 163 titles written in English and published in the UK and/or Ireland between 1 October 2025 and 30 September 2026.
The books were nominated by the 2026 judging panel, chaired by celebrated classicist, writer and broadcaster Mary Beard. She is joined by award-winning poet, writer and educator Raymond Antrobus; musician, writer and broadcaster Jarvis Cocker; journalist, editor and critic Rebecca Liu; and Booker Prize-shortlisted novelist, poet and essayist Patricia Lockwood.
Djamel White, an Irish writer based in Dublin, made this year's longlist for his debut novel "All Them Dogs."
His "savage and tender" novel plunges readers deep into West Dublin’s gangland, where murderous associates Tony Ward and ‘Flute’ Walsh find their criminal endeavours complicated by feelings of mutual attraction.
The judges praised the book, saying:
"'All Them Dogs,' the debut novel by Djamel White, is a mouthy, ballsy and bracingly unsentimental portrait of West Dublin gangland, set well off the beaten track of the city’s usual literary landmarks. It charts the lives, loyalties and dealings of a semi-organised crime world. Yet, the novel’s real achievement lies in something quieter and more easily overlooked beneath the bullets and bone-breaking dramatics: a subtle, textured humanity woven among the violent hyper-masculine protagonists.
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"White is an impressive stylist. He has an ear for dialogue that is both racy and real, and a gift for atmospheric description that feels at once inventive and classically grounded. This writer understands that the vernacular of the street, handled with precision and care, can carry as much emotional and literary weight as any elevated register."
A shortlist of six titles will be announced in September from which the Booker Prize 2026 winner is chosen. The winner will be announced on November 9.
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Mary Beard, Chair of this year’s judges, said: ‘Great books have never been written to a single formula. We are confident that our longlist of books has something for everyone. There’s the funny and the unsettling (and in some cases the funny and unsettling); there’s dystopian fantasy and domestic drama; there’s the gritty and the magically mysterious; there are some that will please and some that may shock.’
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The Booker Prize is the leading literary award in the English-speaking world.
The prize is awarded annually to what is, in the opinion of the judges, the best work of long-form fiction written in English and published in the UK and Ireland, irrespective of the nationality or citizenship of the author. The winner receives £50,000 as well as the £2,500 awarded to each of the six shortlisted authors.
The 13 nominated books, and their UK publishers, are:
- The Shadow of the Object by Chloe Aridjis (Chatto & Windus)
- Switzy by Emma Cline (Chatto & Windus)
- Helen of Nowhere by Makenna Goodman (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
- The End of Everything by M. John Harrison (Serpent’s Tail)
- The Disappearers by Marlon James (Hamish Hamilton)
- Black Bag by Luke Kennard (John Murray)
- The Renovation by Kenan Orhan (Hamish Hamilton)
- May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry (Granta)
- The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley (Picador)
- The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout (Viking)
- John of John by Douglas Stuart (Picador)
- All Them Dogs by Djamel White (John Murray)
- The Vivisectors by Missouri Williams (4th Estate)
For more information on the Booker Prize, click here.
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