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I Hear You
This collection of stories, written especially for BBC Radio 4, includes a ten-part sequence: ‘The Circus’, set around Cliftonville Circus, where five roads meet in North Belfast.
It’s five minutes from the nationalist Troubles flashpoint of Ardoyne, where Paul grew up. It’s close to Holy Cross Girls’ School, where protests targeting primary school children drew international attention. The Circus is situated in the poorest part of the Belfast – it is also the most divided.
Each road leads to a different area – a different class – a different religion. The Circus explores where old Belfast clashes with the new around acceptance, change, class and diversity. But this is 2024 and a fresh energy exists.
Other stories include ‘Tickles’, a story about a man visiting his mother in a dementia ward where he finds he is the one who had forgotten important things; ‘Cuckoo’, about a man’s collapse and surgery – where he feels something more sinister has happened to him; and ‘Daddy Christmas’, where a gay man writes a letter to the son he never had.
It’s five minutes from the nationalist Troubles flashpoint of Ardoyne, where Paul grew up. It’s close to Holy Cross Girls’ School, where protests targeting primary school children drew international attention. The Circus is situated in the poorest part of the Belfast – it is also the most divided.
Each road leads to a different area – a different class – a different religion. The Circus explores where old Belfast clashes with the new around acceptance, change, class and diversity. But this is 2024 and a fresh energy exists.
Other stories include ‘Tickles’, a story about a man visiting his mother in a dementia ward where he finds he is the one who had forgotten important things; ‘Cuckoo’, about a man’s collapse and surgery – where he feels something more sinister has happened to him; and ‘Daddy Christmas’, where a gay man writes a letter to the son he never had.
- GenresShort Stories
128 pages, Paperback
Published March 3, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 15, 2025
I love reading short stories, but I don't do it often. This book is exactly why I love them.
I Hear You contains very short stories focusing on the citizens of Belfast; most of them are connected through a bigger event happening in a town. Because of that, we can see the characters through the eyes of other people and then get their own POV. I liked this whole plotline with the contest and different reasons for joining. But I didn't enjoy the last story.
My favourite stories are the ones at the beginning of the book; they aren't connected to this bigger story, and that worked better.
Overall Paul McVeigh is a good writer; these stories felt real, and I easily connected with the characters. After reading some of them, I had to stop because of the emotions that they caused in me. I elso enjoyed the way siblings relationships were showed in the stories.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a digital copy of this book.
I Hear You contains very short stories focusing on the citizens of Belfast; most of them are connected through a bigger event happening in a town. Because of that, we can see the characters through the eyes of other people and then get their own POV. I liked this whole plotline with the contest and different reasons for joining. But I didn't enjoy the last story.
My favourite stories are the ones at the beginning of the book; they aren't connected to this bigger story, and that worked better.
Overall Paul McVeigh is a good writer; these stories felt real, and I easily connected with the characters. After reading some of them, I had to stop because of the emotions that they caused in me. I elso enjoyed the way siblings relationships were showed in the stories.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a digital copy of this book.
February 12, 2025
Most of the stories here were just ok. Some were a slog to get through despite the short story size. Trying to weave together all the tales wouod have worked better if the stories were more complementary to each other but for me it felt forced. The writing was great though.
January 16, 2026
‘’There’s a price for loving that long. That hard. That exclusively.’’
I mean, come on, dear friends. This quote alone should be enough to make you read this collection as soon as possible.
A beautiful, lively Introduction rich in Paul McVeigh’s elegant humour leads us to a collection where the characters have found themselves in a stormy relationship with Belfast and with their soul. Love, loss, hope, failure, every human emotion depicted in writing that is direct, warm, sincere, bittersweet and inviting. As you read, you don’t feel as if you are just reading a book. You feel as if a series of good friends have paid you a visit to unburden their souls. It is no surprise that many of these stories were originally written for BBC Radio 4; the prose possesses a rhythmic, oral quality that makes the reader feel less like an observer and more like a confidant. And this is the true joy of the short form. The ‘arena’ it provides for true connection with the characters. This is why short stories aim at the heart, not the mind. At least, this is the way I’ve always approached the short form.
‘’First, the sky is too low. It is obvious to me why the people here are sometimes cross and sad. How would you feel if there were days when you could reach up and touch the clouds? It is a city being pressed on by the sky. It’s like we are in a pot, being cooked and someone is putting on the lid to make us bubble and boil up.’’
Tickles: A son looking after his mother, who is in the last stages of dementia, narrates her deep, almost obsessive love for his father. As a result, there was too little space for her son in her heart. A moving, bittersweet story.
Cuckoo: A surgery causes Ben to become a different person, as observed by the members of his family. In an uncanny and profound change, he shares the tensions that occur, the distance that increases.
Daddy Christmas: If someone asked me to name my favourite moment in the collection (an impossible task, really…) I’d choose this story and The Glamorous Assistant. Here, Mark confesses his sadness over the fact that his beloved sister has found a partner, and now the time he has to spend with his nephews is limited. He shares his thoughts on familial relationships that seem like a ship that is slowly sailing away, starting with the death of the parents. And then, he decides to write a letter to the child he would like to have fathered. Pure tears running, I kid you not. Such a tender, moving story…
‘’I should have spoken up. Wait, I did say no. I’ve been so confused. That’s the goal of gaslighting. The article told me all about it. It’s all to make you think you are going nuts. Making you doubt your own self rather than doubt them.’’
In a renovated club called The Circus, a talent contest offers £10,000 as a prize, and performers are obviously enticed. A singer fighting for the mother’s attention, the assistant (my favourite) who has had enough of dealing with male manipulation, the dancer who worships her teacher, the judge who knows all about bribery, the medium who acts as if he is Jesus’ brother, the comedian who comments on the way Belfast has changed, the drag queen who speaks of sectarian conflict.
And naturally, the wounds inflicted by the Troubles are everywhere. You might have to dig a bit to see them clearly, but they are there…
‘’I want to come home. But if I do, when you see me, I think you will weep.’’
This is a collection of comfort and warmth. It brings a disturbed soul into calmer waters. It provides a duvet to rest your spirit under and appreciate your daily life, however mundane it may seem. It shows that despite the conflicts and the black sheep, we need to interact with others. Maybe take a leap of faith and see…
Reading this collection has been a privilege.
‘’I think people in Belfast can be sad. I think the people should be told to look up. If they looked up, they’d see how beautiful Belfast is and how lucky they are.’’
My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.word...
I mean, come on, dear friends. This quote alone should be enough to make you read this collection as soon as possible.
A beautiful, lively Introduction rich in Paul McVeigh’s elegant humour leads us to a collection where the characters have found themselves in a stormy relationship with Belfast and with their soul. Love, loss, hope, failure, every human emotion depicted in writing that is direct, warm, sincere, bittersweet and inviting. As you read, you don’t feel as if you are just reading a book. You feel as if a series of good friends have paid you a visit to unburden their souls. It is no surprise that many of these stories were originally written for BBC Radio 4; the prose possesses a rhythmic, oral quality that makes the reader feel less like an observer and more like a confidant. And this is the true joy of the short form. The ‘arena’ it provides for true connection with the characters. This is why short stories aim at the heart, not the mind. At least, this is the way I’ve always approached the short form.
‘’First, the sky is too low. It is obvious to me why the people here are sometimes cross and sad. How would you feel if there were days when you could reach up and touch the clouds? It is a city being pressed on by the sky. It’s like we are in a pot, being cooked and someone is putting on the lid to make us bubble and boil up.’’
Tickles: A son looking after his mother, who is in the last stages of dementia, narrates her deep, almost obsessive love for his father. As a result, there was too little space for her son in her heart. A moving, bittersweet story.
Cuckoo: A surgery causes Ben to become a different person, as observed by the members of his family. In an uncanny and profound change, he shares the tensions that occur, the distance that increases.
Daddy Christmas: If someone asked me to name my favourite moment in the collection (an impossible task, really…) I’d choose this story and The Glamorous Assistant. Here, Mark confesses his sadness over the fact that his beloved sister has found a partner, and now the time he has to spend with his nephews is limited. He shares his thoughts on familial relationships that seem like a ship that is slowly sailing away, starting with the death of the parents. And then, he decides to write a letter to the child he would like to have fathered. Pure tears running, I kid you not. Such a tender, moving story…
‘’I should have spoken up. Wait, I did say no. I’ve been so confused. That’s the goal of gaslighting. The article told me all about it. It’s all to make you think you are going nuts. Making you doubt your own self rather than doubt them.’’
In a renovated club called The Circus, a talent contest offers £10,000 as a prize, and performers are obviously enticed. A singer fighting for the mother’s attention, the assistant (my favourite) who has had enough of dealing with male manipulation, the dancer who worships her teacher, the judge who knows all about bribery, the medium who acts as if he is Jesus’ brother, the comedian who comments on the way Belfast has changed, the drag queen who speaks of sectarian conflict.
And naturally, the wounds inflicted by the Troubles are everywhere. You might have to dig a bit to see them clearly, but they are there…
‘’I want to come home. But if I do, when you see me, I think you will weep.’’
This is a collection of comfort and warmth. It brings a disturbed soul into calmer waters. It provides a duvet to rest your spirit under and appreciate your daily life, however mundane it may seem. It shows that despite the conflicts and the black sheep, we need to interact with others. Maybe take a leap of faith and see…
Reading this collection has been a privilege.
‘’I think people in Belfast can be sad. I think the people should be told to look up. If they looked up, they’d see how beautiful Belfast is and how lucky they are.’’
My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.word...
May 11, 2025
I Hear You by Paul McVeigh is a short story collection which will be published on 3rd March 2025 by Salt Publishing.
I was drawn to this book by not only the cover, but McVeigh's other book The Good Son is one that I have been wanting to read for some time. As a queer writer of Irish descent myself, I'm always looking at the best and newest voices in the field, and McVeigh's is a name that keeps coming up, for good reason. And given Salt’s track record with writers like A.J. Ashworth (one of my favourite short story writers), I knew that the quality of writing would be only the absolute best.
Split into two sections, the collection starts with three standalone stories, followed by a set of interconnected stories collectively titled The Circus.
The stories featured in I Hear You were originally written for radio, and you can feel this from the opening of Tickles, the very first story featured. This does nothing to dampen the quality of the prose, but you can definitely see how the pieces would be enhanced by the spoken aspect.
By turns tender, raw and unflinching, I Hear You shows McVeigh as a modern great in writing the small, human moments that make up the big events that change lives. I don't remember the last time a story made me feel anything quite as viscerally as the second story, Cuckoo, a standout for me.
Maybe I'm biased, being queer myself, but another standout for me is Daddy Christmas, a poignant and all-too-relatable take on change and regret in the face of gay singledom. Even though I can't say I personally have ever wanted children, this story spoke to me (spoke for me almost) in ways I can't even begin to coherently express.
The Circus features ten short pieces focussing on different people associated with a new club in Belfast hosting a Got Talent competition, thus all the stories take the role of the central character as their title (The Glamourous Assistant - a personal favourite, The Comedian, The Judge and The Organiser, for example) and this is an approach I really enjoyed.
I could talk for hours about each story individually because they have all left some kind of mark on me that I am yet to fully be able to articulate. Each story deals with the protagonist being overshadowed and/or alienated by someone/thing close to them in some way, and McVeigh is brilliant at this, there are thirteen stories in this collection and they all explore a different form of weighty expectation brought on by existing alongside another person who is deemed ‘better’ and I have to say I am in awe of his ability to do this.
It’s safe to say that I practically devoured this book, mostly just taking breaks between stories to let the weight of them sink in.
Few writers could so expertly write endearing characters and bigoted, irredeemable ones, too. The Medium is a timely exploration of religion, celebrity, consumer culture and the internet from the perspective of someone charging people subscription fees to talk to God and get a mortgage in heaven.
A master of realistic, distinctive voices, McVeigh's I Hear You is a timely, queer collection with drag queens, musicality and pop culture references ranging from Ariana Grande to The Scarlet Pimpernel (how much camper can you get?)
Seriously, what more could you ask for?
I was drawn to this book by not only the cover, but McVeigh's other book The Good Son is one that I have been wanting to read for some time. As a queer writer of Irish descent myself, I'm always looking at the best and newest voices in the field, and McVeigh's is a name that keeps coming up, for good reason. And given Salt’s track record with writers like A.J. Ashworth (one of my favourite short story writers), I knew that the quality of writing would be only the absolute best.
Split into two sections, the collection starts with three standalone stories, followed by a set of interconnected stories collectively titled The Circus.
The stories featured in I Hear You were originally written for radio, and you can feel this from the opening of Tickles, the very first story featured. This does nothing to dampen the quality of the prose, but you can definitely see how the pieces would be enhanced by the spoken aspect.
By turns tender, raw and unflinching, I Hear You shows McVeigh as a modern great in writing the small, human moments that make up the big events that change lives. I don't remember the last time a story made me feel anything quite as viscerally as the second story, Cuckoo, a standout for me.
Maybe I'm biased, being queer myself, but another standout for me is Daddy Christmas, a poignant and all-too-relatable take on change and regret in the face of gay singledom. Even though I can't say I personally have ever wanted children, this story spoke to me (spoke for me almost) in ways I can't even begin to coherently express.
The Circus features ten short pieces focussing on different people associated with a new club in Belfast hosting a Got Talent competition, thus all the stories take the role of the central character as their title (The Glamourous Assistant - a personal favourite, The Comedian, The Judge and The Organiser, for example) and this is an approach I really enjoyed.
I could talk for hours about each story individually because they have all left some kind of mark on me that I am yet to fully be able to articulate. Each story deals with the protagonist being overshadowed and/or alienated by someone/thing close to them in some way, and McVeigh is brilliant at this, there are thirteen stories in this collection and they all explore a different form of weighty expectation brought on by existing alongside another person who is deemed ‘better’ and I have to say I am in awe of his ability to do this.
It’s safe to say that I practically devoured this book, mostly just taking breaks between stories to let the weight of them sink in.
Few writers could so expertly write endearing characters and bigoted, irredeemable ones, too. The Medium is a timely exploration of religion, celebrity, consumer culture and the internet from the perspective of someone charging people subscription fees to talk to God and get a mortgage in heaven.
A master of realistic, distinctive voices, McVeigh's I Hear You is a timely, queer collection with drag queens, musicality and pop culture references ranging from Ariana Grande to The Scarlet Pimpernel (how much camper can you get?)
Seriously, what more could you ask for?
March 24, 2025
I Hear You by Paul McVeigh published March 3rd as part of the Salt Modern Stories series which ‘showcases contemporary short story writers born, or working in, the British Isles. Beautiful paperback originals in A format, pocket editions, with classic Salt covers, that will form a must-have set for all story enthusiasts and book collectors.’
I Hear You comprises a collection of short stories that were initially commissioned and subsequently broadcast by BBC Radio Four, hence the title. With the time allocated to the radio story slot being fourteen minutes, Paul McVeigh had the extra challenge of focusing his writing to accommodate this constraint and to also be mindful that his words were being aired in the mid-afternoon. These limitations provided Paul McVeigh with the impetus to write a sharp and compact collection that has been described by Kit de Waal as ‘brave, honest, raw and funny’.
Consisting of three standalone stories and ten individual, yet interwoven, stories, I Hear You provides something for every reader. There is a tenderness to Tickles as it recounts the story of a mother and son, as he visits her in a nursing home. In Cuckoo there is a sense of the surreal with what could be described as an irrational thread running through the storyline, yet it works. And the third story Daddy Christmas is heavily imbued with a sadness, a regret of what will probably never be. The ten-part sequence with the over-arching title of Circus draws together individuals from different, but neighbouring, strata of society. Each chapter is titled to match the participant in an upcoming talent show – The Singer, The Glamorous Assistant, The Irish Dancer, The Drag Queen being a few. We get an insight into their reasons why and what winning the coveted £10,000 prize money would mean to them. Set in Belfast the impact of its history is evident as all these stories converge in a more contemporary space and time.
With imaginative and playful stories, I Hear You is a vibrant coming together of people and place, an engaging collection touching on the inner lives of many characters and their emotional complexities.
I Hear You comprises a collection of short stories that were initially commissioned and subsequently broadcast by BBC Radio Four, hence the title. With the time allocated to the radio story slot being fourteen minutes, Paul McVeigh had the extra challenge of focusing his writing to accommodate this constraint and to also be mindful that his words were being aired in the mid-afternoon. These limitations provided Paul McVeigh with the impetus to write a sharp and compact collection that has been described by Kit de Waal as ‘brave, honest, raw and funny’.
Consisting of three standalone stories and ten individual, yet interwoven, stories, I Hear You provides something for every reader. There is a tenderness to Tickles as it recounts the story of a mother and son, as he visits her in a nursing home. In Cuckoo there is a sense of the surreal with what could be described as an irrational thread running through the storyline, yet it works. And the third story Daddy Christmas is heavily imbued with a sadness, a regret of what will probably never be. The ten-part sequence with the over-arching title of Circus draws together individuals from different, but neighbouring, strata of society. Each chapter is titled to match the participant in an upcoming talent show – The Singer, The Glamorous Assistant, The Irish Dancer, The Drag Queen being a few. We get an insight into their reasons why and what winning the coveted £10,000 prize money would mean to them. Set in Belfast the impact of its history is evident as all these stories converge in a more contemporary space and time.
With imaginative and playful stories, I Hear You is a vibrant coming together of people and place, an engaging collection touching on the inner lives of many characters and their emotional complexities.
February 17, 2025
Following his critically acclaimed debut novel The Good Son, Paul McVeigh returns with a volume of short stories published as part of the Salt Modern Stories series. The title of the collection – I Hear You – is a reference to the fact that these works were written and commissioned for BBC Radio 4. In his introduction to the volume, McVeigh explains the challenges of writing for this medium – the stories had to be of a specific length reflecting the duration of each broadcast (roughly 2000 words) and needed to cater for a pre-watershed audience. A less talented writer would have considered these requirements limiting. In McVeigh’s hands, however, they become prompts for punchy stories in which the characters are laid bare through their respective narrative voices.
The central piece in this volume is The Circus, a sequence of ten stories set in the vicinity of Cliftonville Circus, North Belfast, each of which focuses on a would-be participant in a local talent show. The stories are connected through ingenious cross-references, leading to a final story which ties up all loose ends. Against this greater narrative, the insights into the variegated cast of characters also reveal a changing community, still haunted by the Troubles, coming to terms with contemporary, diverse, multi-cultural society.
Of the remaining stories which complete the collection, two are particularly poignant (“Tickles”, about a man and his mother who suffers from dementia, and “Daddy Christmas”, in which a gay man writes a letter to an imaginary son), while the third, “Cuckoo”, has a surreal vibe.
This is a slim but compelling collection of well-crafted stories which should ideally be read aloud… or listened to!
https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/20...
The central piece in this volume is The Circus, a sequence of ten stories set in the vicinity of Cliftonville Circus, North Belfast, each of which focuses on a would-be participant in a local talent show. The stories are connected through ingenious cross-references, leading to a final story which ties up all loose ends. Against this greater narrative, the insights into the variegated cast of characters also reveal a changing community, still haunted by the Troubles, coming to terms with contemporary, diverse, multi-cultural society.
Of the remaining stories which complete the collection, two are particularly poignant (“Tickles”, about a man and his mother who suffers from dementia, and “Daddy Christmas”, in which a gay man writes a letter to an imaginary son), while the third, “Cuckoo”, has a surreal vibe.
This is a slim but compelling collection of well-crafted stories which should ideally be read aloud… or listened to!
https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/20...
April 17, 2025
Belfast stories to read aloud
—
Subtitled ‘As read on BBC Radio 4,’ this is a bingeable volume of short stories that McVeigh wrote specifically to be read aloud, and perhaps that’s both their strength and their weakness. Written for a spoken voice rather than a read one, they need the voices of Belfast to give them full volume, but reading them aloud yourself (or to others) gives them another dimension. With three standalone shorts and a sequence that reveals a neighbourhood, there is much here for the casual reader but also for fans of McVeigh’s debut novel The Good Son, in the colour and tone, and in the individual against the world around them.
What will most impress is the immediacy, how McVeigh throws you in to the narrative without a breath. The characters break through the page (and probably the airwaves) fully realised, pulling you into their lives from their first entrance. Be prepared to weep and groan and cry and laugh as McVeigh brings modern Belfast right into your hands.
—
Subtitled ‘As read on BBC Radio 4,’ this is a bingeable volume of short stories that McVeigh wrote specifically to be read aloud, and perhaps that’s both their strength and their weakness. Written for a spoken voice rather than a read one, they need the voices of Belfast to give them full volume, but reading them aloud yourself (or to others) gives them another dimension. With three standalone shorts and a sequence that reveals a neighbourhood, there is much here for the casual reader but also for fans of McVeigh’s debut novel The Good Son, in the colour and tone, and in the individual against the world around them.
What will most impress is the immediacy, how McVeigh throws you in to the narrative without a breath. The characters break through the page (and probably the airwaves) fully realised, pulling you into their lives from their first entrance. Be prepared to weep and groan and cry and laugh as McVeigh brings modern Belfast right into your hands.
May 8, 2025
I enjoyed these short stories, each one is just a few pages and very easy to read. The first three are standalone then there are a series set in Belfast all connected around a talent show. You could see this series as chapters in a larger story but quite cleverly each one works on it's own too.
I Hear You can fit in your coat pocket. I took it out of the library at the same time as Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead and I could not have chosen two books more different in size.
I Hear You can fit in your coat pocket. I took it out of the library at the same time as Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead and I could not have chosen two books more different in size.
September 20, 2025
These short stories grab you in and make you feel part of their lives. The first three are stand alone and involve different family relationships. I liked Cuckoo for its magically slant. The other stories are part of a series called Circus telling the stories of contestants in a talent show in North Belfast. Hilarious, sad, hopeful and poignant. The Irish Dancer gets my vote. Some people never change.
August 7, 2025
Gentle and funny
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews