Cameo

by Rob Doyle

Cameo is the life story of invented Irish novelist Ren Duka, who has unexpected, runaway international success with a prolific series of autofictional novels.

What begins as a playful satire on literary ambition and the chaos of our times expands into a dazzling, polyphonic odyssey that challenges the border between fiction and reality.

As the Ren Duka novels race outwards in widening circles of influence, we encounter Dina Tatangelo, cult novelist of the New York underworld; a Japanese manga artist whose work eerily affects his family life; a grizzled Dublin taxi driver who just might ferry his passengers between worlds; a film-star facing public disgrace; and Rob Doyle, an author enduring a psychic and ontological crisis.

Cameo is at once a metaphysical architecture of the imagination, a human comedy full of unruly passions, and a self-portrait across multiple dimensions.

Genres: Ireland

288 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 22, 2026

About the author

Rob Doyle’s first novel, Here Are the Young Men, is published by Bloomsbury, and was chosen as a book of the year by The Irish Times, Sunday Times, Sunday Business Post, and Independent. It was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards Newcomer of the Year. His second book, This Is the Ritual, will be published in January 2016 (Bloomsbury / Lilliput). Rob’s fiction, essays, and criticism have appeared in The Dublin Review, The Stinging Fly, The Irish Times, Sunday Times, Sunday Business Post, Gorse, Dalkey Archive’s Best European Fiction 2016 and elsewhere.

Reviews

[Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed Doyle’s debut, loved his second book, then soured on his work circa Threshold, which I found unpleasant to read and disingenuous in its use of the conventions of autofiction – which, to some extent, Cameo also is. There’s no denying, though, that this is an immensely fun and well-crafted book, as well as being exactly the sort of thing I can’t resist: a metafictional series of stories inside stories, with subtle elements of the strange and uncanny. (That cover, all frames within frames, is perfect for it.) Happily, it’s most similar to This is the Ritual, with its focus on a group of fictitious writers, their books, and how the two loop into each other. Loved the rhythm of this; it just really works.

I received an advance review copy of Cameo from the publisher through NetGalley.

[James Durkan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cameo / Rob Doyle

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

~ The essence of the Ren Duka cycle is panache, if you're asking me. Hidden depths and an intangible poignancy… ~

This is my first Rob Doyle since Here Are The Young Men, and my word. It’s so original, it’s so mind bending, it’s just so good. NGL, half the time I was asking WTF is this? But in saying that the pages turned quick!

You’re brought through a series of darkness, moral and political questionability, you clearly want to know where does Ren Duka stand? What does he really believe? It’s as though throughout all these questions we keep getting guided through.

The stories being interconnected, some more obvious than others, bring around the same core values from different stances. The aforementioned Cameo was brilliant. It lands where it could have gone awry.

I don’t care if I missed the point as I’m taking this as what it is. Nothing is there for the sake of it, it carries legit space to spur in. This has heart. This has soul.

It has that feeling though of a short story collection, but totally works where it shouldn’t. As they say, End it with the Laughter.

TBR Pile: Graig
Bought from: Bookstation Carlow - 19/01/26

Read: 04/02/26 - 05/02/26
Release Date: 22/01/26
ISBN: 9781399631082

[Declan Franks]

REN DUKA
KUN DERA

[Dorian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't really write a review of this without being paid. It's absolutely brilliant. Forces the contemporary reader, though darkness, brutality and extreme moral and political transgressions to ask and moralise about the author itself. What are his stances? Doyle knew this would be the response of the contemporary fiction reader with his pointed and directional transgressions. And the novel explodes this question from a vast array of angles, interlocking in narratives that are entirely different yet universal, circling outward. But it also answers it, literally, when Rob Doyle - the author that has slapped and insulted and delighted and pushed and pushed us - makes a Cameo. That moment, even though it is somewhat spoiled by the dust jacket, was a total stroke of genius art.

Aside from the transgressive elements, the novel has a beating heart and a complex, interlocking and hefty soul. The violences help this, making room for the light and the vulnerability of the human condition in horrific and absolute contrasts. This is my first Booker prediction of the year.

Btw I had the most awful and terrifying dreams reading this.

[Mairead Hearne (swirlandthread.com)]

I had no expectations when I started Cameo as I am not familiar with Rob Doyle's work. Unfortunately I almost DNFed it on a number of occasions, but I persisted as I was convinced there was something beyond my grasp that I would eventually understand. But no there wasn't. I did read to the end but I'm afraid Cameo was just not for me.

[Harvey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sublime

[Lewis Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic. Doyle’s best work yet.