A young Dubliner whose debut novel has been longlisted for the Booker Prize has described the news as “really wonderful”. 

All Them Dogs tells the story of Tony Ward who returns to Ireland after five years abroad and is swept up in a seedy world of gangland crime in West Dublin. 

It’s a world of tough estates, boxing gyms and tattoo parlous - yet somehow, love manages to flourish in this world of violence and crime. 

“He actually finds himself involved in a bit of a romance with the enforcer that he's working alongside,” author Djamel White explained on The Hard Shoulder. 

“In the meantime, his family aren't exactly overjoyed to have him back.

“So, he's dealing with kind of complicated feelings of where he fits in the world and what this kind new landscape looks like to him now.” 

A logo of British literary award Booker Prize on screen in front of website. Picture by: Alamy.com. 

Mr White was born in Dublin but grew up in Cavan, before moving back to the capital with dreams of becoming a writer. 

For him, gangland crime was something that felt “present and available”. 

“I mean, you kind of were privy to it - whether you liked it or not,” he recalled. 

“I always found living in a kind of built up suburban area, there was a real kind of mix of people and stuff. 

“Not only that, but in terms of what you hear on the street, you're kind of almost bombarded by tales of the gangland via the news and everything.”

When asked if he ever thought he would become a Booker Prize nominated author, Mr White said it was “hard to believe”. 

“I would have hoped that one day down the line I'd have a book published,” he said. 

“I was a reader since I was really, really young and then not too long after becoming a reader, I became a writer.

“So, yes, it's kind of been a lifetime coming in the making, even though I'm quite young. 

“It's something I think I've been doing for as long as I can remember.”

Overall, Mr White said the experience has been “really wonderful”, but he is now focusing on writing his second book. 

While it is not a sequel to his debut novel, he revealed that the “DNA of All Them Dogs will be present in it”.

“I kind of cracked into a second novel pretty much immediately after I got the publication deal,” he said. 

“It's just taking a lot longer than the first one because I'm on my own now and I'm caught up in the whole cycle. 

“But yes, it’s in the works.”

Main image: All Them Dogs.