The Heart's Invisible Furies - John Boyne

My book of the year. Devoured by our book club, this thoroughly enjoyable coming-of-age story is deeply touching and invites readers to connect with the characters' journeys. John Boyne put his heart and soul into this book, telling the story with humour and compassion while illustrating the stark realities of growing up in Catholic Ireland in the 1940s.

Butch and I were transfixed, and binge-listened to the Audible version, succinctly read by Stephen Hogan. We laughed, cried and were shocked too. This book will make it onto my Top 10 Read list for the year.

"Cyril Avery is not a real Avery, or at least that's what his adoptive parents tell him. And they constantly remind him of it.

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 threescore 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 that makes you laugh and cry while reminding us of the redemptive power of the human spirit, fostering respect and admiration for Irish history.

"I've always believed that if women could only collectively harness the power that they have, then they'd rule the world."

― John Boyne, The Heart's Invisible Furies

"I remember a friend of mine once telling me that we hate what we fear in ourselves."
― John Boyne, The Heart's Invisible Furies

Buy The Heart's Invisible Furies