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Over Our Heads
Over Our Heads: the brilliant debut by Andrew Fox. A young man rushes to the bedside of his ex, knowing the baby she's having is not his own. Travelling colleagues experience an eerie moment of truth when a fire starts in their hotel. A misdirected parcel sets off a complex psychodrama involving two men, a woman and a dog ... Andrew Fox's clever, witty, intense and thoroughly entertaining stories capture the passions and befuddlements of the young and rootless, equally dislocated at home and abroad. Set in America and Ireland - and, at times, in jets over the Atlantic - Over Our Heads showcases a brilliant new talent. 'The stories are wonderfully crafted and cared-for, the undertones are witty and ironic, but also serious and filled with sympathy' Colm Tóibín, Guardian 'Over Our Heads is full of surprises, all of them great' Roddy Doyle, winner of the Booker Prize 'Deft, clever, intense - this is a terrific debut from a very gifted new writer' Kevin Barry, winner of the IMPAC prize 'Andrew Fox's stories are slivers of power; knowing, watchful and burning with intelligence. Lives half-lived or grasped at; loves longed for and destroyed; the journey of the modern emigrant who goes away in the same daze in which he comes home: these are stories which linger long after they have been read' Belinda McKeon 'Fox is skilful at probing the bigger emotions: alienation, loss and nostalgia. His sparse prose is an effective counterpoint to complex feelings. His stories deal with the moments that shape a life: first trysts, the illness of a parent, the graduation of a child. ... Fox knows the hallmark of a good short story: leave the reader wanting more'Financial Times 'An impressive and thoroughly enjoyable collection ... Fox lets his characters tramp around their worlds, searching for heaven on earth' Irish Times 'Achieves the effect of intimating deep fissures of pain and longing beneath the lightest of surface cracks. Fox's prose is poised and confident, a well-honed tool with which to treat his delicate subject matter' Sunday Times 'The best of these stories are very good indeed ... While there are few happy souls in these arresting stories, the reader can find consolation in Fox's supple prose and frequently subtle insights' Irish Independent 'A remarkable new talent ... He is able to tread so lightly that we only realise we have been cleverly punched in the solar plexus after we finish the last line' Irish Mail on Sunday (five stars)
- GenresShort Stories
224 pages, Paperback
First published February 5, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
October 15, 2017
Loved these stories. Spare and beautiful.
March 29, 2025
Pennies 8/10
Manhood 8/10
The Parcel 9/10
Stag 7/10
Two Fires 5/10
A Vigil 8/10
Occupations 9/10
A Man Should Be Able to Do Things 5/10
Everything 8/10
Strong 6/10
How to Go Home 8/10
The Navigator 5/10
Graduation 7/10
Stations 5/10
Are You Still There? 7/10
Rating: 3.5/5
Manhood 8/10
The Parcel 9/10
Stag 7/10
Two Fires 5/10
A Vigil 8/10
Occupations 9/10
A Man Should Be Able to Do Things 5/10
Everything 8/10
Strong 6/10
How to Go Home 8/10
The Navigator 5/10
Graduation 7/10
Stations 5/10
Are You Still There? 7/10
Rating: 3.5/5
September 20, 2026
Disappointed and left feeling underwhelmed. Dislocation and isolation run like a thread through these tales of lost souls scrambling for some sense of meaning. A lot of the tales felt unfinished and just hung there, almost waiting for the next instalment. Not for me I'm sorry to report.
January 17, 2020
Enjoyed these short snapshots into imperfect lives.
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April 26, 2020Read James Holden's full review at: https://theshortstory.co.uk/the-short...
August 23, 2020
Perhaps due to cultural background, I found it quite hard to enjoy some of the stories. I like the ones that I could comprehend.
February 19, 2015
Maybe it was fitting that the time I had to read Andrew Fox’s brilliant first collection Over Our Heads was during a flight from Paris to Dublin temporarily delayed with a landing to Shannon. There was plenty of time to read, uninterrupted. And maybe it was fate as well because several of the stories somehow involved travel. I liked on the back cover, the idea that “[Fox’s] clever, witty, intense and thoroughly entertaining stories capture the passions and befuddlements of the young and rootless, equally dislocated at home and abroad”. I’ll be honest when I say that it was the cover that first drew the book to my attention, and then I heard Fox interviewed on the RTE program “The Book Show” and I loved his explanation of place and how it shapes characters. I was particularly interested in one story “Occupations” which host of the porgram, Sinead Gleeson, asked Fox to elaborate upon. In the story a work team arrive at an abandoned but soon to be used office space, to clean the graffiti of a street artist who has drawn in the office workers and their expressionless faces. The men, while scrubbing at the blank paint and watching the way its grey sludge when mixed with the cleaning chemicals slides down the wall, talk about who must have done the painting and why. It’s perhaps Fox’s only story with an element of the spooky, in that the artist is never revealed directly but returns before the close of the story to send a final message to the work crew. It was fresh and organic when I heard the interview so I was delighted when I came upon it nestled in my window seat.
Of the collection, it’s hard to choose favorites. There have been so many contenders for short fiction lately that it’s perhaps easiest to compare the stories to the likes of Colin Barrett’s Young Skins but that wouldn’t be fair– they’re different elements entirely. In Barrett’s Young Skins he creates an entire world out of the known, but Fox plays with the known in familiar territory. His stories aren’t over laden with detail, more character driven and less likely to paint as bleak a portrait of Ireland as Barrett sometimes manages. But not all is spring roses and fresh laundry in Fox’s Ireland. In several stories Fox’s characters have emigrated, like in the final piece of the collection “Are You Still There?” where a 20-something man brings his American girlfriend back to Dublin and from there, his life changes. Or as in my favorite story of the collection, “The Navigator”, where an Irish man long emigrated to America brings his daughter back to Ireland where she wants to study at University. Both are rich with the idea of home coming but also the shock in the distance. How little things change, but also how much is different. One of the final stories, “How to Go Home” finds a young man moved to London returning to his family. One younger girl tells him, awed that he’s moved to England, that she’s always wanted to do that– and when he challenges her to, the dynamic of the story changes. Fox creates a universe in his stories that is recognizable to readers of the collection; place names are often reused to create a sense of community in the text, just another element of Fox’s drive to show relationship between place and person.
I think it’s safe to say in brief that Over Our Heads is a seminal collection of short stories for its take of the immigration of Irish men and women. There is a realism in Fox’s writing that grounds the stories, so many of which are about being up in the air.
Of the collection, it’s hard to choose favorites. There have been so many contenders for short fiction lately that it’s perhaps easiest to compare the stories to the likes of Colin Barrett’s Young Skins but that wouldn’t be fair– they’re different elements entirely. In Barrett’s Young Skins he creates an entire world out of the known, but Fox plays with the known in familiar territory. His stories aren’t over laden with detail, more character driven and less likely to paint as bleak a portrait of Ireland as Barrett sometimes manages. But not all is spring roses and fresh laundry in Fox’s Ireland. In several stories Fox’s characters have emigrated, like in the final piece of the collection “Are You Still There?” where a 20-something man brings his American girlfriend back to Dublin and from there, his life changes. Or as in my favorite story of the collection, “The Navigator”, where an Irish man long emigrated to America brings his daughter back to Ireland where she wants to study at University. Both are rich with the idea of home coming but also the shock in the distance. How little things change, but also how much is different. One of the final stories, “How to Go Home” finds a young man moved to London returning to his family. One younger girl tells him, awed that he’s moved to England, that she’s always wanted to do that– and when he challenges her to, the dynamic of the story changes. Fox creates a universe in his stories that is recognizable to readers of the collection; place names are often reused to create a sense of community in the text, just another element of Fox’s drive to show relationship between place and person.
I think it’s safe to say in brief that Over Our Heads is a seminal collection of short stories for its take of the immigration of Irish men and women. There is a realism in Fox’s writing that grounds the stories, so many of which are about being up in the air.
February 24, 2016
This is the first thing I have read from this author and I'm not really sure if I'll read any more from them. This really was a mixed bag.
Some of the short stories were great. Vivid descriptions of interactions or the general lives of people. Others felt like half formed ideas or half a chapter of a larger piece that left you confused and sure you have missed a page or 200.
Maybe it's just me being used to a short story being 50 pages or so but I had to force myself to finish this collection.
Overall some stories are great but others are just not for me.
Some of the short stories were great. Vivid descriptions of interactions or the general lives of people. Others felt like half formed ideas or half a chapter of a larger piece that left you confused and sure you have missed a page or 200.
Maybe it's just me being used to a short story being 50 pages or so but I had to force myself to finish this collection.
Overall some stories are great but others are just not for me.
September 27, 2022
I really loved these stories when I read them - I made a note 'Excellent read more by' - unfortunately this author has yet to publish anything else, at least in book form, so these stories are all I know or can comment on and I found them wonderful. I am sure I will read them again.
If anyone is interested this Andrew Fox was born in Dublin in 1985 and at the time of publication was living in New York (update made in January 2015).
If anyone is interested this Andrew Fox was born in Dublin in 1985 and at the time of publication was living in New York (update made in January 2015).
March 10, 2015
Fox writes beautifully about everyday occurances, some of them are strange others not at all. Each story in the collection captures moments in the protagonists' lives. It is one of those short story collection that I will surely reread as I think there are new subleties to be discovered with every read.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews