Book Review - Did You Pay the Piper Man?

22 MAR 2026

MARK MULLAN

The Editor of Sci Fi Ireland reviews the debut literary magic realism novel Did You Pay the Piper Man? by Belfast author, Hanna Nielson (Uí Néill Press, 2025).

Hanna Nielson’s debut novel Did You Pay the Piperman? (Uí Néill Press, 2025) is a joyous Joycean romp through a single wintery night in post-Troubles Belfast that asks the question – If all of life is a play, do we write our own lines? Do we even get to edit the script? And if so, what are those critical moments where, knowingly or not, we slip from one story to another?

The stage for this particular play is a road between two of Belfast City’s cornerstone booze houses along its famed Golden Mile which acts as the divide between East and West, Conflict and Peace, Love and Hate. There’s a phenomenal landscape of characters regularly entering from stage right and left, and if the novel has a flaw (as all do) it may be that the expansive cast of characters and the chronological mischief Nielson works can cause a bit of confusion. That said, this could be seen as a benefit to a story that plays with misunderstandings and sliding doors in a manner that nods nicely to A Midsummer Night’s Dream; and Nielson has included a secret key of sorts (insert ‘intrigue’ here, am I right?) to keep the readers grounded in reality while the story drifts through dreams and aethers.

The beating heart of Nielson’s novel is a love story, and at its blood-red centre stand Ella, Dante, and Brian. A trio between whom every possible emotion moves. As James Joyce’s Ulysses aims to capture all of life, so Nielson, via our lead trio, has captured the full range of what human love may look like. Romance of course, but also love for the friend, the family, and universal love for our fellow humans.

Plot wise, the story hinges on a divergence in space and time that moves our characters on almost celestial arcs through the city, away from and then onto collision courses with each other. To say more would be to rob you of the pleasure of working through the intersecting stories. Suffice to say Nielson handles the landscape of characters and divergent plots with gorgeous line-by-line prose, an ever-present wit, and just the right amount of philosophy, history, and myth to give a sense of eternality to a story that’s all about making the right choice at the right time.

Did You Pay the Piper Man? by Hanna Nielson (Uí Néill Press, 2025) is available from all major retailers, in paperback, hardcover, and ebook.

WRITER BIO

Mark Mullan is an Irish writer born, raised - and after a ten-year sojourn around the world - living once more in Belfast. He completed his MA in Creative Writing at Queen's University Belfast, and also has a MA in Chiropractic with which he keeps a roof over his and Benji’s heads. (Benji is a Yucca plant and an accidental bonsai tree.) ​Mark has been published in The Apiary, The Blackbird, and commissioned for radio by the BBC Storytellers project.

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Did You Pay the Piper Man? is a literary magic realism novel with dual timelines set along Belfast's Golden Mile during a busy night before Christmas, 2005.

The struggles of a former boxer, a young American writer, and a beleaguered hotel manager intertwine when timelines split after an accident. 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 from West Belfast 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 Irish American writer, Ella, and their star-crossed love story begins.

It's one story nested within several more 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/ Celtic Tiger era Belfast. Above all it is a celebration of friendship in all its forms which can redeem us across the any divide, even death.

The author, Hanna Nielson, is an Irish American writer-filmmaker who first moved to Belfast in 2005, and has made it her creative home for many years. She runs The Belfast Review magazine, championing of the arts scene in Northern Ireland and providing a shared space for creatives across communities. As a documentary filmmaker, she holds film festival awards and her screenplays have placed finalist in Sundance Screenwriters Lab and elsewhere.

Published by Uí Néill Press, November 2025