Here Come the Dogs: A Novel

In small-town suburban Australia, three young men from three different ethnic backgrounds—one Samoan, one Macedonian, one not sure—are ready to make their mark. Solomon is all charisma, authority, and charm; a failed basketball player down for the moment but surely not out. His half-brother, Jimmy, bounces along in his wake, underestimated, waiting for his chance to announce himself. Aleks, their childhood friend, loves his mates, his family, and his homeland and would do anything for them. The question is, does he know where to draw the line? Solomon, Jimmy, and Aleks are way out on the fringe of Australia, looking for a way in. Hip hop, basketball, and graffiti give them a voice. Booze, women, and violence pass the time while they wait for their chance. Under the oppressive summer sun, their town has turned tinder-dry. All it will take is a spark. As the surrounding hills roar with flames, change storms in. But it’s not what they were waiting for. It never is. “This stunning novel has such swaggering exuberance that it will make most other fiction you read this year seem criminally dull. You have been warned.” —Irvine Welsh, author of “With compassion and urgency, excavates the pain of those who struggle to remain part of a ruthless equation that has been determined by others.” — “A bravado novel about survival and rebirth in a subculture that moves to its own rhythms.” —