I thought this book, which followed the life of Irish-born Cyril from before his birth into his 70s, was absolutely incredible. Full of larger-than-life characters, this book illustrates an important time in recent history and highlights the intolerance towards gay men, and young unmarried mothers, and what has changed - and not changed - over the years.

This is at times a hard book to read but the characters are so well portrayed and the book is injected with humour throughout. Despite the length of this novel, it is really readable and I got through it in a matter of days.

A fantastic read and a definite five stars. Recommended to anyone who enjoys character-led novels.

Wow...I absolutely loved this book. I love long books and this one didn’t disappoint. Had me in tears at the end. What a story

This book starts off in 1945 in Ireland and spans across 70 years. It is the story of Cyril Avery who as a baby was adopted by Charles and Maud Avery after his biological mother gives birth out of wedlock. We travel with Cyril through his life journey and you will laugh and cry throughout this journey.

Having heard so much about this book and it sitting on my kindle for a long time it was finally time to start reading it. The first few chapters I struggled with and wasn’t sure whether to continue or not , I just found it was very long and drawn out . However I stuck with the book and I am glad that I did. Reading about Cyrils life and how he was treated at times was quite sad in places. There was some humour in the story also and as the book progressed I enjoyed it more. I did however find it quite farcical the dialogue and language used by a seven year old boy and his friend especially in 1950’s Ireland. The way they spoke and they way they were spoken to would not happen back then. I also felt that there were too many coincidences in the book that things happened to easily. All in all a good read but to me not as amazing as I had been led to believe. 3.5 stars.

An absolutely amazing book that I found completely absorbing. It’s powerful, heart-wrenching and in several places had me laughing out loud. In 1945 sixteen year-old Catherine Goggin is cast out of her parish in rural Ireland by the priest for being pregnant. She starts a new life in a new place, giving up her baby to a hunchbacked Redemptorist nun. Cyril is constantly reminded as he grows up that his parents are only his adoptive parents and that he’s “not a real Avery” - but then who is he? The only certainty he feels is his love for his best friend Julian but that’s not only illegal - to admit his feelings would be to risk everything.

There’s so much more to come as we follow Cyril up to the present day through his relationships, bereavements and a crime, living in Amsterdam and New York and then back in Ireland. Throughout the story there are tantalising near-miss encounters between the two main characters who are unaware of their connection - will they ever find out?

I found all the characters plausible and especially loved Cyril. The dialogue is wonderful, exposing people’s bigotry, hypocrisy and breathtaking lack of self-awareness.

I’d thoroughly recommend this book.

Cyril Averys mother was a 16 year old girl, pregnant and cast out by her parents and the parish priest. She makes her way to Dublin and gets a job. When Cyril arrives he is put up for adoption and adopted by Charles, a rogue and a tax evader, and Maude, a famous novelist who does not want to be famous. He has a strange upbringing as an only child and 'not and Avery' as he is constantly reminded. His life changes for the better when he meets Julian and they become life long friends.
This is a beautiful story about a strange little boy who grows up and has to navigate the adult world that he 'doesn't completely fit into. There are parts of this story where I laughed out loud and parts that I read with tears in my eyes. I was sorry to finish it and say goodbye to Cyril.
Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for granting me an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Quite brilliant! It is undoubtedly the case, in Ireland, that the Catholic church, up until 1980 or so, utterly dominated the cruel and inhuman behaviour and attitude of society to abortions, acceptance of homosexuality and the rights of giving birth outside marriage. John Boyne's novel spans the transition from this dark period to that of the present day. He presents us with utterly believable characters who live through and somehow survive this era of suppression. Whilst the text is sometimes unequivocally brutal this is counterbalanced by sections which shall have you laughing out loud. The storyline is coherent and beautifully constructed. It was a pleasure to read and, for this reviewer, can be summarised in one word. Exceptional!

This is one of the most wonderful books I have ever read. Months later it still stays with me and I tell everyone who reads to pick this up straightaway.
I had the best week reading this book. Please don’t be fooled by the ultra boring cover - this book is fantastic! Set in Ireland in 1945 when Cyril is given up for adoption by his unmarried 16yo mum. We follow his life throughout his childhood, finding love in difficult circumstances & losing people dear to him. There is more subtle humour at the start of the book. When Cyril first meets Julian at age 7, they are hilarious. As are his hopeless, self absorbed adoptive parents. Bit of a cliche but this book is truly a rollercoaster. I savoured every single word - it is so well written. Please please read this - it will be one of those books that stays with you forever.

The heart’s invisible furies was a great book.
Great writing and this story will stay with me for awhile. Addressing Irish attitudes to homosexuality and bigotry. Have a read it will open your eyes.

My favourite book of the year so far - I wasn’t expecting to love it as much as I did but I savoured every page. Following Cyril every 7 years through his life, I enjoyed seeing snapshots of his life but also reading how they linked and unfolded. He faced some terrible situations in his life but the narration was just fantastic and I was totally immersed in the plot. Not only was Cyril a brilliant character, but those around him were so well created and developed that you really felt like you knew them. I enjoyed it so so much - will definitely be reading more John Boyne.

A stunning and well written book which left me breathless and emotional exhausted at the end. The Heart's Invisible Furies is the first book I've read by John Boyne but not the last!

John Boyne is an incredible story teller and this book is up there with the best. It is incredibly moving and I wish I could give it 6 stars. If you only read 1 book this year, make it this beauty.

Within the first few sentences I was drawn into the story of a 16 year girl shamed and cast out by her family and community for the sin of getting pregnant out of wedlock. If I was shocked and saddened by the cruel hypocrisy displayed at the beginning of the chapter is was nothing compared to the devastating heart-break I felt following the brutal bigotry shown at the conclusion.
But the book never allows itself to wallow in self-pity and a gentle humour mixes naturally in the narrative.
The story is of Cyril the boy and then the man growing up and discovering his homosexuality in a post-war Ireland where homosexuality is neither legal nor socially acceptable.
Cyril is not always wise or kind and at times I became angry with his careless, selfish behavior but the author portrays a real, flawed, forgivable human being so I was always interested in what was happening to Cyril and was glad that despite all the loss and sadness he found love and happiness.
Cyril’s saga is in a way an epic spanning many decades but unlike so many epic sagas this one skis forward every few years, bypassing the saggy bits in the middle, leaving us with detailed depictions of Cyril’s life rather than rushed swathes of history.
The author manages to intertwine beautiful writing with a compelling story, tough truths with humour and create painfully human characters about whom you come to care deeply so that despite its length this book urges you to continue reading.

In 1945 in the closing days of the war, a pregnant sixteen-year-old girl, Catherine Goggin, is cruelly denounced from the pulpit by her local priest and literally thrown out of her small Irish village. Fortunately Catherine is a force to be reckoned with and despite boarding the bus to Dublin with hardly any money and nowhere to go, getting the heck out of Goleen and away from its small minded inhabitants isn’t all bad. With little other choice to be had, her baby boy, Cyril, is adopted at birth by the wealthy Avery family, and it is he who tells the story.

From Dublin to Amsterdam to New York and back to Dublin, we follow Cyril Avery’s life at seven-year intervals as it unfolds, through childhood, his unrequited love for his friend Julian, adulthood and the near-impossibility of living as a gay man in Ireland, love, relationships, loss and change, all set against the sweeping social and political backdrop of postwar Ireland and the wider world.

It’s hilarious, tender, bawdy and heartbreaking, often all at the same time. Laugh out loud moments abound (the “one of them” conversation with a former colleague and then conversation with Laura’s parents in the hospital were particular highlights, but there are many more). Cyril’s childhood is handled with a light and humorous touch, which does not obscure the awfulness of being constantly reminded by his eccentric adoptive parents that he’s not their real son and therefore doesn’t count; notwithstanding his own observation that his childhood was “reasonably happy”. Tragedy is never far away though and right from the start John Boyne pulls no punches in depicting the discrimination, hatred and outright violence which Cyril and others all too often experience.

Throughout, his real mother Catherine - an amazing woman in so many ways - intersects occasionally with his life, their true relationship known to us the readers but not to them. I was hoping so hard for a moment when they would learn the truth, because Cyril needed Catherine in his life so badly (well, who wouldn’t?).

Cyril, an everyman in some respects, does some undoubtedly awful things as he slowly flounders towards being able to live his life honestly, but retains his fundamental decency and goodness.

I adored this epic story which had me in laughter and tears on numerous occasions. Read it!

An impressive, sometimes heart-breaking story of a boy who is not fully accepted by his adoptive parents, who searches to find himself. A very powerful, poignant and beautiful Irish tale.

The Heart’s Invisible Furies has a familiar premise. A young girl in rural Ireland is pregnant and is driven out of her community by the priest. However, this novel does not tell the tale you might expect.

Cyril Avery is the child, born in 1945, so the story of post-war Ireland and his own are inextricably linked. He is adopted by an affluent, eccentric and colourful couple in Dublin – the determinedly obscure author Maude Avery and her husband Charles who is an exuberantly corrupt banker. They are amiable but remote and are always careful to remind Cyril that he is their adoptive son.

His life changes when he and Julian Woodbead meet at the age of seven. Julian is already handsome, charismatic and worldly beyond his years and Cyril becomes infatuated with him. Julian and his family will remain intertwined with Cyril throughout his life.

Cyril’s adoption into a privileged circle and his employment at the Dáil mean he finds himself at the heart of a number of the major events affecting Ireland and the wider world. We follow him throughout his life as he lives through political and social upheaval.

Cyril is gay at a time when it is both a criminal offence and socially unacceptable, in a society which is dominated by the Catholic Church. He struggles to hide his sexuality from the significant people in his life. His inability to be honest about himself has dramatically – sometimes comically – bad consequences at a number of points in the book. Boyne leaves space for us to question whether Cyril is purely a victim or whether he bears some responsibility for this failure of courage.

Some of the secondary characters are also fascinating. I found the portrait of Maude Avery particularly poignant. To Cyril she is cool and remote but the picture of her that emerges from her work is quite different. There are also a number of cameos of real historical figures which are entertaining – including a drunk Brendan Behan.

The book opens with Cyril telling us that he eventually comes to know his birth mother, and tantalisingly their paths cross a number of times throughout their life before they are finally reunited. The drama for the reader comes not from if but when and how.

This is a warm, immersive and humorous account of one man’s life from his birth in disgrace in a repressive society, to the legalising of gay marriage in his old age. It does not gloss over the horrors that many people face because of prejudice but it is also brimful of humanity and hope.

A book that had sat in my pile for too long and was about to pass and then saw all the rave reviews.....it didn’t disappoint. Heartwarming sad written with a sense of humour it was a joy to read. It was slightly long but I loved it. Amazing characters who I wish I knew !

This is a novel about a young boy given up for adoption by his teenage mother who spends his life searching for a way to find love and belonging. A sublime, beautiful novel that weaves social history of late 20th century Ireland with perceptive characterisation and storytelling. I had not read John Boyne's work before but this novel made me a fan and I look forward to exploring more of his exquisite storytelling.

This is a story which raises lots of feelings, anger, sorrow, disbelief to name but a few. I found it a very difficult book to read because of these feelings and took several breaks but was pleased I read it to the end.

John Boyne uses his Heart’s Invisible Furies to express his opinion on the Catholic church and the State in Ireland forcefully but sincerely, with more hints of regret than bitterness.
The protagonist, Cyril Avery is a lovable hapless character, trapped by his circumstances and his era. Despite this, he survives but not unscathed.
John Boyne uses humour to powerful advantage and teases with the expectation of coincidences. This novel does not descend into mawkishness or predictability, and even if it did, it would be fully forgiven for it.
He makes a clear distinction between love and lust and at times this read (and the afterword) are amongst the most moving and honest narratives I have read.
I really did not want it to end.
With thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK

Cyril tells the story of his life and his unconventional upbringing. His start in life wasn't great, he was then adopted by the Avery's.
Charles and Maude Avery weren't the most caring couple to bring up a child. Maude was a famous author which she hated. Cyril became friends with a boy called Julian at a young age and their lives crossed paths a lot over the coming years.
Cyril's life moves on from his childhood to his marriage and life in Amsterdam and New York.
Life wasn't always so happy for Cyril but in the end his family are what really matters. This brilliant book explores life as an adoptive child and the difficulties of being different in Ireland.