John Boyne

Named Book of the Month Club's Book of the Year, 2017 Selected one of New York Times Readers’ Favorite Books of 2017 Winner of the 2018 Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award From the beloved New York Times bestselling author of The Boy In the Striped Pajamas, a sweeping, heartfelt saga about the course of one man's life, beginning and ending in post-war Ireland Cyril Avery is not a real Avery -- or at least, that's what his adoptive parents tell him. And he never will be. But if he isn't a real Avery, then who is he? Born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast out from her rural Irish community and adopted by a well-to-do if eccentric Dublin couple via the intervention of a hunchbacked Redemptorist nun, Cyril is adrift in the world, anchored only tenuously by his heartfelt friendship with the infinitely more glamourous and dangerous Julian Woodbead. At the mercy of fortune and coincidence, he will spend a lifetime coming to know himself and where he came from - and over his many years, will struggle to discover an identity, a home, a country, and much more. In this, Boyne's most transcendent work to date, we are shown the story of Ireland from the 1940s to today through the eyes of one ordinary man. The Heart's Invisible Furies is a novel to make you laugh and cry while reminding us all of the redemptive power of the human spirit.

A Novel

The Heart's Invisible Furies

Named Book of the MonthClub's Book of the Year, 2017 Selected one of New York Times Readers' Favorite Books of 2017 From the beloved New York Times bestselling author of The Boy In the Striped Pajamas, a sweeping, heartfelt saga about the course of one man's life, beginning and ending in post-war Ireland Cyril Avery is not a real Avery -- or at least, that's what his adoptive parents tell him. And he never will be. But if he isn't a real Avery, then who is he? Born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast out from her rural Irish community and adopted by a well-to-do if eccentric Dublin couple via the intervention of a hunchbacked Redemptorist nun, Cyril is adrift in the world, anchored only tenuously by his heartfelt friendship with the infinitely more glamourous and dangerous Julian Woodbead. At the mercy of fortune and coincidence, he will spend a lifetime coming to know himself and where he came from - and over his many years, will struggle to discover an identity, a home, a country, and much more. In this, Boyne's most transcendent work to date, we are shown the story of Ireland from the 1940s to today through the eyes of one ordinary man. The Heart's Invisible Furies is a novel to make you laugh and cry while reminding us all of the redemptive power of the human spirit.

bianca

And yet for all my happiness at seeing him happy and secure in who he was, there was something terribly painful about it too. What I would not have given to be that young at this time and to be able to experience such unashamed honesty.

Why are you so afraid of people being happy? Why can’t you just live and let live?

You reach a point where you realize that your life must go on regardless. You choose to live or you choose to die. But then there are moments, things that you see, something funny on the street or a good joke that you hear, a television programme that you want to share, and it makes you miss the person who’s gone terribly and then it’s not grief at all, it’s more a sort of bitterness at the world for taking them away from you.

‘You were never a real Avery,’ he hissed. ‘You know that, don’t you?’

‘But Christ on a bike, you came close. You came damned close.’

But for all that we had, for all the luxury to which we were accustomed, we were both denied love, and this deficiency would be scorched into our future lives like an ill-considered tattoo inscribed on the buttocks after a drunken night out, leading each of us inevitably towards isolation and disaster.

Maybe there were no villains in my mother’s story at all. Just men and women, trying to do their best by each other. And failing.

Cyril Avery is not a real Avery or at least that's what his adoptive parents tell him. And he never will be. But if he isn't a real Avery, then who is he? Born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast out from her rural Irish community and adopted by a well-to-do if eccentric Dublin couple via the intervention of a hunchbacked Redemptorist nun, Cyril is adrift in the world, anchored only tenuously by his heartfelt friendship with the infinitely more glamourous and dangerous Julian Woodbead. At the mercy of fortune and coincidence, he will spend a lifetime coming to know himself and where he came from - and over his three score years and ten, will struggle to discover an identity, a home, a country and much more. In this, Boyne's most transcendent work to date, we are shown the story of Ireland from the 1940s to today through the eyes of one ordinary man. The Heart's Invisible Furies is a novel to make you laugh and cry while reminding us all of the redemptive power of the human spirit.

Elad Schulman

Abbie Duggan

A lengthy read, but never slow, this is the best story I’ve read this year. Cyril is such a lovely character and with dry humor and wit as the backbone of the writing, this book was hard to put down.

Heather Margaret

This. Book. Wow. The way Boyne interwove the lives of all the characters was beautiful. The Heart's Invisible Furies was just great story-telling. This book was a well-written history of Ireland, of being gay, of having a child out of marriage, corruption in religious figures. Heartbreaking stories wrapped into more heartbreaking stories with a sprinkle of humor. Can we all agree on Mary-Margaret was the worst? Or one of the worst? There were so many characters I wanted to kick and yet many more I wanted to hug and tell them they were going to be alright.

Unbelievably good book. I fell in love with the characters from chapter one. 

Arron

Ali 

My favorite thing about this book is that John Boyne manages to create a universe in which you can clearly distinguish who are the "personas" and who are the "people". 
There is, of course, Cyril: he's got a humanity that many of the other characters of the book lack. He's got emotions, sensitivity, empathy, intelligence, and all of this makes him, ultimately, human. But then, not many of the characters of the book are quite the same.
When we first meet Charles, we can tell he's definitely one of a kind: corrupted, greedy and immoral. And yet, we cannot tell much more about him: he's shaped like a character, not like a human. He lacks humanity, he lacks empathy, he seems to exist as if he was just reciting in a theatrical play and nothing more. As if he exists, playing his part, and people such as Cyril are just watching his performance, nothing more. 
Charles and Cyril live on two different wavelengths, one puts on a performance, the other is living in our actual world. And maybe that's how Cyril actually views the world around him. After all, 1945's Ireland was nothing but a pitiful and depressing play, and the ones who suffered during those times were the ones who witnessed the wickedness of that society and bore the pain that was inflicted to them. And pain, of course, makes you more human than anything else.
But then again, we actually see humanity in Charles, even if only once: on his death bed, we can see him finally running away from the persona that he interpreted his whole life as he lets a glimmer of light finally shine on his humanity, showing us that not everything is lost in our society.
But it's not just Charles who is playing a role: Max Woodbead, Bridget, Margaret Muffet, Peter and Ruth and so on. Even Julian often looked stereotyped more than anything else, but that was different: despite the character he put on, he had humanity in him, he had compassion, and maybe that's one of the reasons why Cyril was madly in love with him for most of his youth; because he could see Julian’s true self, despite the shell of a carefree and insensitive player that he put on. And yet, in particularly deep moments we can see his humanity shining through his skin: when Cyril ran away from the wedding with Alice and confessed his feelings to Julian, he was angry, furious even. And isn't that a sign of humanity if anything else? One of the biggest ones, even. And, once again, on his death bed Julian showed forgiveness to Cyril, and asked for his affection on his last moments. He admitted his own sensitivity. 
Maude, as well, on her own will refuses to admit the sensitivity that makes her the great writer that she is: by refusing her fame as a writer, she refuses her emotional nature as a human.
Many other characters, like Cyril, accept instead their humanity and embrace it as well: Alice, Bastiaan, Catherine, they all live as humans and die as human. Embracing the pain they went through, they are able to embrace their state of human being. And isn't that what the novel wants us to do? To live through the pain and embrace our natural weakness, our mistakes, our fragility and disappointments, because as our hopes and desires change, we are going to make the best of it in the end.

Arianna

karol tang

everything i would want in a book. also so funny in a nice juxtaposition from its subject matter. 

 “I’m going to be a pervert when I grow up,” he continued.
“So am I,” I said, eager to please. “Perhaps we could be perverts together.”

Melanie Knight

I fell in love with the characters in this powerful story of living authentically and finding your own family through prejudice, heartbreak and coincidences. I loved the way that the reader got to drop in on Cyril Avery's life every seven years from 1945 to 2015, catching glimpses of historical events woven into his story.

“If there is one thing I've learned in more than seven decades of life, it's that the world is a completely fucked-up place. You never know what's around the corner and it's often something unpleasant.”

My seventh 12 Challenge book for 2023 and wow, this one was absolutely fascinating. The Heart's Invisible Furies follows Cyril Avery over the course of his life, from before his birth in 1945 to when he is a 70 year old man in 2015, as he grows up in Dublin, Ireland and tackles the trials and tribulations of being a gay man in the mid to late 20th century, especially in a country so religious and homophobic. This story was both heart-breaking and heart-warming, it covered some incredibly tough topics such as the treatment of gay men and unwed pregnant women, the AIDS epidemic, racism, child prostitution and more. I'm not going to say this was an easy read, because it really wasn't - it was often crass, violent, offensive, eccentric and depressing - it was an incredibly heavy and dark story for the most part but wow, this is the type of story that leaves a mark on you.

The characters were all, honestly, pretty terrible. Bastiaan and Alice were the savings graces in this book and my favourite characters. Cyril, as the first person narrator, was an interesting man, at intervals you felt both very sorry for him and hated him as well. He was incredibly selfish and arrogant, and while many of his actions were completely understandable given the culture and attitudes where he grew up, plus the way he was brought up in the oddest family circumstances you could ever imagine, and the danger posed to him by the police, church and violence of other people due to his sexuality, he still made many decisions along the way that directly hurt people who had done nothing wrong which was maddening. It truly showed the flaws and trauma of a person and how that truly effects them and those around them. The great thing about this book is that we follow him right up into old age and watch the times change, the mindsets regarding homosexuality improve and see him review his actions retrospectively and make amends where possible.

There were times throughout where I could've DNF'd but I am honestly really glad I continued. Some of the conversations and passages absolutely dragged and were often incredibly ridiculous, which often added to the oddness and humor of this book but also made it a bit dull at parts. It felt like reading a mixture of a Monty Python skit mixed with Billy Elliot and Dallas Buyers Club. It was honestly a wild ride the whole way through. The interwoven story lines, the pieces of the puzzle all falling into place were absolutely amazing, plus the atrocities it depicted were so raw and realistic, it made for a very compelling read.

I absolutely recommend this book to those fascinated by LGBTQ+ history or Irish history but definitely check the trigger warnings for this one, I guess you shouldn't really expect different from the author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas aka one of the most painful books I have ever read. John Boyne really has a way of handling tough subjects, it truly makes you question morality and ethics of human treatment, incites so much anger and compassion towards people and their fight for equal human rights, while also being slight off-puttingly disgusting and absolutely gut-wrenchingly touching at the same time.

Genevieve 

“If there is one thing I've learned in more than seven decades of life, it's that the world is a completely fucked-up place. You never know what's around the corner and it's often something unpleasant.”

4 ⭐'s

My seventh 12 Challenge book for 2023 and wow, this one was absolutely fascinating. The Heart's Invisible Furies follows Cyril Avery over the course of his life, from before his birth in 1945 to when he is a 70 year old man in 2015, as he grows up in Dublin, Ireland and tackles the trials and tribulations of being a gay man in the mid to late 20th century, especially in a country so religious and homophobic. This story was both heart-breaking and heart-warming, it covered some incredibly tough topics such as the treatment of gay men and unwed pregnant women, the AIDS epidemic, racism, child prostitution and more. I'm not going to say this was an easy read, because it really wasn't - it was often crass, violent, offensive, eccentric and depressing - it was an incredibly heavy and dark story for the most part but wow, this is the type of story that leaves a mark on you.

The characters were all, honestly, pretty terrible. Bastiaan and Alice were the savings graces in this book and my favourite characters. Cyril, as the first person narrator, was an interesting man, at intervals you felt both very sorry for him and hated him as well. He was incredibly selfish and arrogant, and while many of his actions were completely understandable given the culture and attitudes where he grew up, plus the way he was brought up in the oddest family circumstances you could ever imagine, and the danger posed to him by the police, church and violence of other people due to his sexuality, he still made many decisions along the way that directly hurt people who had done nothing wrong which was maddening. It truly showed the flaws and trauma of a person and how that truly effects them and those around them. The great thing about this book is that we follow him right up into old age and watch the times change, the mindsets regarding homosexuality improve and see him review his actions retrospectively and make amends where possible.

There were times throughout where I could've DNF'd but I am honestly really glad I continued. Some of the conversations and passages absolutely dragged and were often incredibly ridiculous, which often added to the oddness and humor of this book but also made it a bit dull at parts. It felt like reading a mixture of a Monty Python skit mixed with Billy Elliot and Dallas Buyers Club. It was honestly a wild ride the whole way through. The interwoven story lines, the pieces of the puzzle all falling into place were absolutely amazing, plus the atrocities it depicted were so raw and realistic, it made for a very compelling read.

I absolutely recommend this book to those fascinated by LGBTQ+ history or Irish history but definitely check the trigger warnings for this one, I guess you shouldn't really expect different from the author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas aka one of the most painful books I have ever read. John Boyne really has a way of handling tough subjects, it truly makes you question morality and ethics of human treatment, incites so much anger and compassion towards people and their fight for equal human rights, while also being slight off-puttingly disgusting and absolutely gut-wrenchingly touching at the same time.

Amy Place

Now that I've read it a second time, I realize that I don't really like the epilogue. I don't think the story benefitted from being tied up in such a neat bow. Still one of my favorite books.

this book had me invested in it. i haven't finished a long book in a while, and i guess it's also a good read to have at the beginning of pride month. a wonderful story indeed. 

kite

Adopted by a well-to-do if eccentric Dublin couple who remind him that he is not a real member of their family, Cyril embarks on a journey to find himself and where he came from, discovering his identity, a home, a country, and much more throughout a long lifetime.

The heart's invisible furies

Vilandra

I loved this book, Capital L. It felt a lot like a Dickens book - a lot of vignettes about the same character. I laughed out loud a lot, and also got teary-eyed at parts. The dialogue is so sharp and witty, and it deals with serious topics in a real way without being preachy. Just an all around well written book that I didn’t want to put down.

Caroline Oestergaard

Sade A

"If there is one thing i've learned in more than seven decades of life, it's that the world is a completely fucked up place. You never know what's around the corner and it's often something unpleasant"
This book will break your heart and try to put the cracked pieces all together again. It'll probably succeed in mending it at least as far as you can mend cracks, but ever so often you'll think of everything Cyril Avery had to go through, everything he had to lose to get to this point and you'll remember him thinking
"Why couldn't Ireland have been like this when i was boy?'
and your heart will shatter once again.....

This isn't just Cyril's story though, but an unvarnished story of all the heartache and vitriol one goes through when society and religion (crazy how much hate religion inspires sometimes towards vulnerable people) declares with unshakable certainty that you are inferior and deserve to be treated "like some second class citizen" as someone who is less than, because of your gender or sexual orientation. 

"They were all wrong. They were wrong about everything"
Boyne doesn't try to dress up any issues here in colourful words and for that i am infinitely grateful...
Simple but yet poignant, this book packs a serious punch.
ALL THE BLOODY STARS. There was never any doubt.

Trish

"What's wrong with you people?" he asked, looking at me as if I was clinically insane. "What's wrong with Ireland? Are you all just fucking nuts over there, is that it? Don't you want each other to be happy?"

"No," I said, finding my country a difficult one to explain. "No, I don't think we do."


This is a beautifully written novel that is dramatic, hilarious, violent, heartbreaking, outrageous, tender, tragic and incredibly memorable. It doesn't matter if you prefer character or plot driven novels, John Boyne does both exceptionally well. Each setting is lush and rich with atmospheric emotion. And the characters are as unrealistic as they are recognizable, as funny as they are broken, as well-intentioned as they are fallible . It's because of the oxymorons and the complexities explored within each character that they feel real. 

At various times, this book had me holding my breath, on the edge of my seat, laughing out loud, swooning, crying, audibly gasping in horror, and grinning from ear to ear. I experienced the full range of emotions with Cyril in this epic story spanning his lifetime. 

For an enhanced experience, read this book while playing Troye Sivan's album Blue Neighborhood on a loop. It hits different, trust me. 

Oh, and in case it wasn't already obvious, I am in awe of this book. I love writing and stories that help me exercise my empathy, and John Boyne has mastered the art skillfully. The Heart's Invisible Furies is the first novel that I've read of his, but it won't be my last. I already have The History of Loneliness on my shelf, waiting in the wings. 

Finally, below are more of my favorite quotes from the novel. I've gathered them here mainly so I can revisit them and relive the moments, but also in the hope that it might encourage someone else to read this book sooner rather than later. 

  

  But for all that we had, for all the luxury to which we were accustomed, we were both denied love, and this deficiency would be scorched into our future lives like an ill-considered tattoo inscribed on the buttocks after a drunken night out, leading each of us inevitably toward isolation and disaster.

It was a difficult time to be Irish, a difficult time to be twenty-one years of age and a difficult time to be a man was attracted to other men. To be all three simultaneously required to level of subterfuge and guile that felt contrary to my nature. I had never considered myself to be a dishonest person, hating the idea that I was capable of such mendacity and deceit, but the more I examined the architecture of my life, the more I realized how fraudulent were its foundations. The belief that I would spend the rest of my time on earth lying to people weighed heavily on me, and at such times I gave serious consideration to taking my own life. Knives frightened me, noises horrified me and guns alarmed me, but I knew that I was not a strong swimmer. Were I to head out to Howth, for example, and throw myself into the sea, the current would quickly pull me under and there would be nothing I could do to save myself. It was an option that was always in the back of my mind.

"I sometimes feel as if I wasn't supposed to live among people at all. As if I would be happier on a little island somewhere, all alone with my books and some writing material for company."

It's as if she understood completely the condition of loneliness and how it undermines us all, forcing us to make choices that we know are wrong for us.

I could number more sexual partners in my history than anyone I knew but the difference between love and sex could be summed up for me in eight words:
I loved Julian; I had sex with strangers.

A line came into my mind, something Hannah Arendt had once said about the poet Auden: that life had manifested the heart's invisible furies on his face. 
He looked a hundred years old. 
He looked like a man who had died several months earlier. 
He looked like a soul in pure torment. 
But still I knew him. All the changes that the disease had made to his once-beautiful face and body and still I would have known him anywhere.

Cindy Lieberman

I enjoyed this book (and especially the audiobook narration) about the life of a child born out of wedlock in Ireland and the man he becomes. The hypocritical nature of the Catholic Church figures prominently. My only complaint is the ludicrous number of coincidences that were used to drive the plot forward.

Stacey Rainey 

A fantastic book, wanted this one to go on for longer. I went in knowing very little and wow, what a story. Read this one good people!

Eva Bailey

This book. My heart. 5 stars is not enough to show how much I loved this book. I loved every character, every page. I adored this book, cried so much, was fully immersed in every page. Please pick this up you won't regret it. There is a hole in my heart having finished it, one of my favourite books of all time.

Alex Flagg

3 stars because I couldn't give it any less. My brain KNOWS that this was a good book, literature and lesson wise, but everything else in me was bored😕 why am I the only person that didn't like this?? Do I have a heart?? It was longggg and slowwww

Jenna Ward

This novel has become one of my favorite books of all time. An incredibly detailed and raw account of the character's experiences throughout his life, and is full of flawed, real, and heartbreaking characters and events. I thought about this book for weeks after I finished it.

courtney garrison

Hearts invisible furies is probably my second favorite book this year next to the great alone by Kristin Hannah. This book is slow, beautiful, heart wrenching, emotional roller coaster that will have you shocked, angry and crying at times.

Your Mc is Cyril and it goes through from the time he is still in his mother’s belly to the time he is an old man. This is set around Ireland in the 20th century and the Catholic Church. You get to see some of what Ireland is like and how hateful they were in the 40s-60s. Gays is this book are constantly degraded by being called nanny boy, fags, perverts and dirty queers.

Cyril who is gay in a time and place where gays were called nasty insults and thrown in jail or killed just for holding hands. There’s some major triggers in this book so be cautious going in. Slut shaming, Parents throwing out, Murder of a baby, Abuse, Anti-LGBTQIA, Racism, Pedophillia, Men having a lesbian obsession, Sexism, Talk of suicide, Slurs like faggot, Mention of the N word

Everything comes together throughout the story and your left with a whole in your heart at the end because you didn’t want it to end. I dragged my feet finishing this because I just didn’t want it to end.

There are so many characters in this book. Catherine Goggin manages the doll house and takes no shit from men. Mary Margaret muffet who is a nasty little thing. Bastian who is a scientist and try’s to help others. Julian is Cyril’s best friend and a womanizer or charmer if you will. So many characters with so much depth and story. Each one I enjoyed expect Mary muffet which I wanted to strangle every scene.

Overall I loved this book and it will always hold a place on my shelf and Cyril my heart. I was happy towards the end with a little sadness. His story was amazing and beautiful.

Sarah Smith

Holy crap, this book was amazing! That's it, that's all I have to say about it. Wow.

From the beloved New York Times bestselling author of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, a sweeping, heartfelt saga about the course of one man's life, beginning and ending in post-war Ireland. Cyril Avery is not a real Avery--or at least that's what his adoptive parents tell him. And he never will be. But if he isn't a real Avery, then who is he? Born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast out from her rural Irish community, and adopted by a well-to-do if eccentric Dublin couple via the intervention of a hunchbacked Redemptorist nun, Cyril is adrift in the world, anchored only tenuously by his heartfelt friendship with the infinitely more glamorous and dangerous Julian Woodbead. At the mercy of fortune and coincidence, he will spend a lifetime coming to know himself and where he came from and--over his many years--will struggle to discover an identity, a home, a country and much more. In this, Boyne's most transcendent work to date, we are shown the story of Ireland from the 1940s to today through the eyes of one ordinary man. The Heart's Invisible Furies is a novel to make you laugh and cry while reminding us all of the redemptive power of the human spirit.

So so so great - all of the characters were so detailed and interesting - the story was so engrossing - so unlike what ive read before, capturing someones life from start to end and all of their choices - loved this so much

Emma Brothers

Courtney Woolery

Absolutely wonderful. I laughed; I weeped; I felt happiness, frustration, anger, sadness, joy, and awe. What a beautiful journey.

The Heart's Invisible Furies A Novel

Reviews

Highlights