Did You Pay the Piper Man?

In time, Fate is a matter of choice...
                                   ...chance...

Did You Pay the Piper Man? by Hanna Nielson
A debut literary fiction magic realism novel

LOGLINE

On a winter's night in Celtic Tiger era Belfast, an ex-boxer, an American writer, and busy hotel manager search for redemption as timelines split apart - and only the tune of a homeless piper man can heal the rift.

BOOK BLURB

Belfast 2005. On a busy night before Christmas, the struggles of a former boxer, a young American writer, and a beleaguered hotel manager intertwine when timelines split. Each of them searches for redemption as their fates unravel, and the difference between choice or chance is the flip of a coin. Weaving through it all is a homeless piper man whose haunting melody holds the key to healing the rift - if only someone will listen.

Brian Legarty is an ex-boxer still suffering the effects of a head injury that ended his career. At his wits end tending bar alone for a surging crowd that won't stop coming, he crosses the road to a luxury hotel to ask for help and a mis-understanding between mates turns violent - but in another timeline, he meets the beautiful American writer, and their star-crossed love story begins.

It's one of several stories that intertwine during this one-night Odyssey across Belfast, as characters veer between alienation and connection, crossing timelines, journeying into the Celtic underworld and back again.

A richly textured and psychologically observant tapestry of multiple storylines, Did You Pay the Piper Man? is set during an age of heady excess and uneasy changes in post-Troubles Belfast. Above all it is a celebration of friendship in all its forms which can redeem us across the any divide, even death.
 

Uí Néill Press, Nov 2025

346 pgs