Commonwealth Writers' Prize - Best First Book, 2007, Short-listed, De Niro's Game.
Governor General's Literary Awards: Fiction, 2006, Short-listed, De Niro's Game.
IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, 2008, Winner, De Niro's Game.
QWF McAuslan First Book Prize, 2006, Winner, De Niro's Game.
QWF Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction , 2006, Winner, De Niro's Game.
ReLit Awards - Fiction, 2007, Short-listed, De Niro's Game.
Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, 2007, Short-listed, De Niro's Game.
Scotiabank Giller Prize, 2006, Short-listed, De Niro's Game.
Prix des libraires du Québec, 2008, Short-listed, De Niro's Game.
Hage's energetic prose matches the brutality depicted in the novel without overstating the narrative's tragic arc-an impressive first outing for Hage.
- Publishers Weekly, starred review
A magnificent achievement...the work of a major literary talent.
- Dublin IMPAC Literary Award Jury
The novel is full of poetic descriptions of the surreal and horrific nature of war delivered through Bassam's stream of consciousness narrative. There are lines that you are compelled to read again and again due to their raw beauty and their insight into how war irreparably shapes human psyches.
- Fast Forward Weekly
The excitement of Hage's action-packed plot is supplemented by his visually and viscerally descriptive language...
- January Magazine
East meets West in this stunning first novel yielding a totally fresh perspective on war-torn Beirut...Both terse and lyrical, Hage's narrative is a wonder, alternately referencing modern American action heroes and ancient Arabic imagery. The blend of the two is as startling as it is beautiful.
- Booklist
De Niro's Game is a feverish nightmare of a book, written with a distinctly European flair...it stubbornly refuses to offer the reader any easy comfort...[readers] will be seduced by the undoubted visceral power of this suddenly current narrative.
- Toronto Star
...the incredibly affecting tale of a young man's fight to remain sovereign, intellectually and politically...
- The Hour
...provides an essential historical context to current political turmoil in Lebanon...
- The Dominion
...De Niro's Game discloses much to a Canadian audience largely sheltered from the physical and emotional effects of war...Bassam's voice, though emotionally restrained, tells a story that is not only vivid, but also illuminating.
- Matrix Magazine
[A] masterpiece...writing cannot really get much better than Hage's.
- Literary Review of Canada
...provides an essential historical context to current political turmoil in Lebanon...
- Fast Forward Weekly