Cerberus

by Alan Edward Roberts

Set in Windsor, Berkshire, UK

In 1975, an extinction-level event killed every dog on earth.
Now, in 1990, a sleeping sickness threatens to leave the human
race in a state of complete collapse.

At first ignorant of the devastating changes weaving around them, four
young friends navigate the ups and downs of burgeoning
adulthood, first love and bad summer jobs. Yet slowly and
inevitably the true nature of the situation begins to impact
their lives in profound ways.

Roberts deftly draws together elements of a coming-of-age tale and
binds them up effectively with an authentic story of a world in social
turmoil and political peril. Cerberus’ story is inspired by the youth-led
tales of JG Ballard, SE Hinton, James Franco, and Jeffrey Eugenides.

288 pages, Paperback

Published December 12, 2022

About the author

Author of four books - The Magpie (2019), A Century of Storms (2020), Cerberus (2022) and Gentle November (2025). He also edited and contributed a few chapters to Megablast - The Top 100 UK Rap Records 1987-1993 (2024). Available from all UK bookshops and www.roadsongbooks.com
Editor and publisher at Roadsong Books. Editor of COLDWELL by David Gladwin https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are no dogs! The mysterious extinction that haunts this novel hangs over the central cast, a pall of sadness and nostalgia, and yet the four young protagonists at the heart of the story are stepping into adulthood with the usual mix of vitality, naïveté, awkwardness and courage that leads us to hope for their futures. This story is one of losses and loves, and is written with real wit and wisdom. Beautiful.

[Rebekah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing and captivating book!

[Tom Putnam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being 41 years old, and having moderately enjoyed my late teens, I cannot imagine what it was like for those who were coming of age and learning who they were during the lockdown. In Cerberus, based in the early 90s, Alan Roberts tries to discover that. The book focuses on 4 narrators, 3 women and a man, all around 19 years old, and their friends, when a sleeping pandemic takes the world stage. The adults in the book are all mourning their own catastrophic event 20 years on, in which all Dogs perished without reason.

The story is engaging standing side-by-side with what appears to be a love letter to the culture of the author's youth.

I recommend.

[Joe Maxwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a kind of double-pandemic story with horrifying events in a fictionalised 1975 echoing down to an equally fictionalised but very recognisable 1990 which is when the main events take place. Following four teenage narrators, with interjections from onlookers, hangers-on and oddballs along the way, the story dramatizes the impotence of the individual and finds a kind of desperate hope. The book has a jigsaw structure with the characters offering telling insights and revealing their flaws. Lots of pop culture references to the time as well, and I do wonder what the author had against Maggie Philbin.

[Colette Roberts]

A gripping, multi-layered story. When you think it's about the devastation of a disease wiping out dogs or a strange pandemic spreading the nation but really at the core it's a story of growing up and relationships between young people, with feelings beautifully pinpointed.
Being in my 40s I loved the familiarity and vividness of the scene-setting with musical and other cultural references acting as landmarks along the way.
A book worth giving your time to. I look forward to his next work!

[Angela Rivers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this latest book from Alan. I loved the music and film references, it was my era. I also tried to imagine life without our little dog Murphy which made the story even more compelling. I think I would be similar to the characters who struggled with the absence of the dogs as I have been lucky to be loved by many of them throughout my life. I would miss them being part of our everyday. I very much look forward to the next book.

[Giles Kent]

Melding intimate memories and zen-like wisdom with a kitchen sink realism that drags you in and doesn't let you go, long after you've stopped reading, this new novel from Alan Edward Roberts is a breath of fresh air and a mesmeric delight, from cover to cover. Keep reading, and you will be richly rewarded...

[Jason Sabourin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is quite an unusual book. Told via a cast of preoccupied teenagers and mostly revolving around these kids' lives, their loves and relationships in the wake of a momentous global event, there is a creeping sense of dread as an even bigger and more ominous event gradually unfolds almost entirely in the background. Sounds dark - and I guess it is - but is also often hilarious. A brilliant book.

[Sam Ogg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really felt invested in the characters reading this book, with everyday activities forming part of the apocalyptic narrative, whilst simultaneously building tension. Excellent!

[Paul Taylor-McCartney · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful exploration of how a group of young adults are forced to survive as the world around them falls apart. The author is adept at using humour to frame the darkest of events, evoking a particular era from our lives, but one that is refigured as a dystopic, alternative history. Brilliant.

[David Gladwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

1990. It’s a dog’s life, and a living death. Abandoned young people, feeling their way through the strange new delights and trials of existence, largely without help or guidance from parents too preoccupied to notice. Same as ever, right? Wrong. These parents are mourning. Not for lost older siblings, but for companions the young don’t remember, not properly. Dogs. The dogs all died 15 years ago, in 1975. Every dog on Earth.

But the dogs are still there, still part of the culture, a lost faery kingdom alongside our own, its canine denizens forever barking, marking out their territory across the land and culture of the living human world. Their remains have become holy relics, and they inhabit the graffiti art of the mysterious Slave who, like the dogs, is ever-present but unseen.

Across more than 100 short chapters, many taking up less than a page, Cerberus gets us inside the heads of the four main characters and The Chorus, each chapter from a single voice. The narrative moves through a counterfactual 1990 in which the absence of dogs is not the only change. People are falling asleep.

At first it’s the odd one, here and there. Then more, everywhere, faster and without explanation. Nobody knows whether today is their last day awake, tonight their last long slumber, a permanent escape from the no-future present. Which helps to focus the young on the things they should explore and enjoy, at their age. Only more so. Sex and drugs and funk ‘n’ soul. What else will keep you going when the world falls apart? Not the dogs.

So youth culture is crucial, as people used to say in the 1980s. Because this might be our final word to the universe. When the planet has grown its green over our glory, whoever and whatever comes afterwards will first encounter a layer of drinks and tunes and trainers, branded eternal above the hierarchaeology. They dig in Slough, they’ll find Derrick May before Thomas Gray. The cool sequestered Strings of Life.

This is a novel with four-to-the-floor momentum but no reliance on pitching up the tempo. Cerberus makes time to explore the breakdowns and bonus beats supporting the big central melodies. We hear the synthesized hum of the sleeping people, the horn stabs of urgent youth and the fading dub echoes of dog song: the bark and snarl and howl that makes us human.

[Lauren Maltas · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most striking thing about Cerberus is the interplay between characters, all of them perceptive and totally unique - they speak like themselves and like each other as a result of the claustrophobia of this closed system; the Eton Wick services like a sealed room. They make detailed observations of each other and these are woven into the narrative intricately at crucial points, layering our understanding of what this world is and what these characters would hope it to be.

The building unease caused by the mystery and tragedy of the lost dogs leads to a pressure cooker effect, which is balanced with some truly beautiful lines and images; blossom trees waiting for the wind to undress them, the idea of people who have a confusing need for violence, a specials board that doubles as an old people’s home for spiders.

Cerberus has a strong dystopian tone reminiscent of George Orwell’s 1984, Missouri Williams’ The Doloriad and TV’s The Last of Us – all share similar questions around who we really are when the world we live in is inhospitable to us, and why, for sure, the return to normal is perhaps the most maddening part of any disaster or social disturbance. What sets Cerberus apart is its use of music, a thread which throughout tethers both the reader and the characters to an invaluable sense of the 'real'.

[Dean O'Leary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Falling between The Magpie and A Century of Storms qualitywise, Alan Roberts is back with his second novel which hones his style of truth speaking teenagers and cast of bystanders that seem to be all-seeing and all-knowing whilst the main protagonists grope around in the dark. Set 15 years after a mysterious plague killed all the dogs, it would seem that the human race is now endangered as a growing number of people succumb to a sleeping malady / coma state. The world begins to collapse yet the four heroes of the story can do nothing but observe the changes looming in slowly like lengthening shadows. It's an interesting 'frog in a slowly boiling pot of water' story. When will the four break for it? What's out there? Where do you run to when your home is threatened? What does it take to make a move? Is he talking about the refugee crisis, or Covid, corrupt government inertia? Yes and no, I think. Again the prose is immaculate - the dialogue convincing on all fronts - and I want to read more. It's great to see him growing and refining his unique style. There's noone else like him. This has been awared 4 out of 5 because I cannot wait to see this author's five star novel. It's coming.

Why isn't this author with a more powerful publishing house?

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Cerberus, Roberts masterfully crafts a fictional realm devoid of dogs, yet their absence looms hauntingly over the narrative and the reader. The characters, not only likeable but profoundly believable, captivate and sustain engagement from the very onset. Throughout the novel, I found myself transported not only to the physical landscapes but also to the chronological time of my birthplace.
Roberts' narrative prowess constructs a fictional and remarkably relatable world, a delicate balance that became so immersive I did not want the book to end. Cerberus succeeds not only in evoking a unique and imaginative universe but also in forging an emotional connection that resonates long after the final page is turned.
It's a thoroughly recommended read.

[Sandy Fish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another storytelling masterclass. Boundless dialogue with characters so fully coloured it’s hard to separate them into fiction. I am there; I know them.
Cerberus gets inside your head. The dog concept is powerful and relatable. A novel pathogen, that caused a cough and made dogs die.
A major event. The ambitions and dreams of a generation in this moment tempered and adapted against the backdrop of a world crisis
Conspiracy theories and cover ups that thread and spread through the population like a pathogen may sound familiar, but Cerberus is fresh, provocative and astute.
Alan Edward Roberts can paint pictures, entertain, convey and give hope.
He excites the mind with a finely tuned finger on the pulse of fate.

[Chris Ranken · Rating 5 out of 5]

Multiple perspectives of growing out of teenage years, set in a time that resonates nicely with me. The writing and subject matter is honest but always warm and accessible with tonnes of detail in every chapter. Past and future events in this world echo the unknown that the characters are heading into. Not everything is explained or resolved but it adds to the ground level perspective that you are put into alongside the main players. Not slow, but smoothly paced so you can soak it all in - a cool book.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thought-provoking and refreshingly different read. Interesting and relatable characters with depth and personality; cultural references anchor the story in its era. Capturing mundane everyday life and its events, we get to know the various characters and their stories, and empathise with their emotions, in a post-canine world. The story is told in a realistic and matter-of-fact sort of way, that leaves you imagining it were real. Recommend!

[Mark Mcdonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a joy for anyone like me, who grew up through the 90’s with music as a soundtrack to their life. Exquisitely researched and each seemingly’ mini-chapter’ reminded me of reading a diary entry. Put it down, pick it up when you like. Hats off to Ed Roberts for writing exactly the book I want to read.
Mark

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book , I was hooked from the off , I love all the locations ( as I live close to these areas ) in the book ,A Big fan of lots of music featured and I loved the whole concept of a world with out dogs ( I’m a dog lover honestly ) it’s a big Yes from me

[Kate Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful read! Beautifully written and a really intriguing - would recommend to anyone who enjoys lovely prose and a good story ☺️

[Paul Tanter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful writing. Finished it and read it again immediately.