What a lovely read this book is. It has plenty of emotions, goes at a good pace and covers many years with it. I would definitely read this author again, he has a lovely writing style and I've already bought the book as a gift for a friend.

A fabulous read from beginning to end the story of a young girl cast out by the church and her family Cyril's journey was an emotional roller coaster and the predudices he faced in a time when people didn't understand what it was like to be gay were heartbreaking loved how the story was told every emotion was played out and the journey he went on finally finds love and then tragedy happens cried at the end when everything goes full circle and ends up in Ireland again can't help who you fall in love with whether it's male or female loved the authors bio at the end a beautiful well written book really recommend it

My experience of John Boyne has been limited to his novels for younger readers and a ghost story. I wasn’t sure what I’d make of this, but I have to say thank you NetGalley for providing me with an ARc of a bittersweet, bleakly comic book that had moments of hope and despair intermingled seamlessly.
The book opens with sixteen year old Catherine Groggin being labelled a whore by her parish priest and cast out of her village because she is pregnant. Nobody steps forward to support her, and nobody helps her. This could have been a thoroughly depressing tale, but Boyne brings a bleak comedy to events by telling the story through the eyes of Cyril Avery (the boy Catherine was carrying).
We learn from Cyril that he was adopted by Charles and Maude, a wealthy couple desperate for a child. A successful banker and renowned novelist, in their home Cyril has a rather unconventional childhood.
Following Cyril as a child we see him go to school, develop an intense crush on a childhood friend and watch as he grows up gay in Ireland.
There was so much to despair over in this book: thypocrisy of the church; the bigoted attitudes of many of the characters; the needless violence and the overwhelming injustice at people not being able to live as themselves out of fear for what others might say or do. Yet, throughout, there were beautifully tender moments of hope for the characters. The dark humour showed by Cyril won me over totally.
Boyne has set himself an adventurous task here. He is exploring attitudes to homosexuality over a substantial period of time, and there’s a lot of characters interweaved throughout. At times I felt frustrated by the close proximity of the key characters to each other without them being aware of the significance, but there was a heartwarming sense of circularity to the novel that felt fitting.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
4.5/5
I really loved this book, a cleverly constructed novel with a unique style that sprawls across geography and time, connecting every character in a way that feels totally natural and unforced.
This is a long book, but definitely worth it. John Boyne’s characters are wonderfully portrayed, especially Maude (my personal favourite), and it’s been a while since I felt so fully immersed in a story.
I would highly recommend this book to any fiction fans and those who are interested in learning more about Ireland and it’s archaic approach to homosexuality.

This is a terrific read. The story centres on Cyril Avery who is born in 1945 to an unmarried 16 year old girl in Ireland. It follows Cyril’s life for seventy years with the narrative jumping seven years for each main chapter amd is divided into four sections: Shame, Exile, Peace and Epilogue.

The story captures the prejudices of the day for all the many situations Cyril finds himself in during his long and complicated life. John Boyne’s writing is incredible – he really make you feel that you are there in each time period and living inside Cyril’s head. The novel goes into the church’s attitude, that of the general public towards illegitimacy and same sex relations as well as a whole host of other dramas.

It’s a well-crafted and written novel that you just do not want to put down. There were times when I found the jump ahead of seven years a little frustrating as I wanted to know what happened immediately following some of the dramas that some sections ended on.

I will be looking out for more books from John Boyne.

With thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Taking the accolade of the first book completed in 2018, this was the perfect book to fill that awful void between Christmas and New Year. This is not a snappy read by any stretch of the imagination, a slow burner if you like and I did feel that there was a slight drag to the thrust of the story in the middle portions, but I just think that despite being a life story in which that the reader is allowed to dip into at various intervals, and so we only see truncated portions of a full life. However I believe the story benefits stylistically from the choice John Boyne has taken with the speed it reads at. It is in the details ,the minutiae of those vignettes that make the extraordinary meetings, near misses and emotional torsions of Cyril’s life stand out in better relief.

It is beautifully written, vivid and colourful, Rich in sight and sound and smell. Liberally sprinkled with Humour, but equally melancholy and thought provoking.

Populated by some truly colourful characters, this is a book of gentle and sometimes much more strident examination of the most pressing issues in Ireland in recent History. Were Mr Boyne to have focused on one of these varied themes this would have been a meaty and satisfying feat of a book. As it is, it is rammed to the rafters with interesting points of reference in Cyril’s very personal story.

Mr Boyne weaves a story that sets the pervasive presence of the IRA, against the free rein given to the Catholic Church through deference and fear . This fear allowing for the physical and sexual abuse of children. He highlights the use of children as charitable currency for good standing in society. Again the church and the now famous Nun trade of illegitimate children is spotlighted. As a result the shaming of girls by that same church that preaches Christian value from every pulpit, ostracising women our Hero set off on a course that takes him across geographical and social frontiers as he struggled with the most taboo of subjects, that of Homosexuality, something accepted and reviled in equal measure.

I had no prior knowledge of Mr Boyne’s personal circumstances, but the level of empathy evident in the deft handling of all the “Issues” including that of a young man struggling with his homosexuality in a time where the authority of the Church and the shame culture that engendered was at it’s height, provides a level of authenticity that gives the story a real emotional backbone.


I think that each reader will have a different experience of Cyril and his cohorts and some might find the steady amble of the narrative something to adjust to, others will find it a meaty ragout, all the more tender for the longer wait.

So it's my last review of 2017, and my year in books has ended pretty much as it began with an excellent 5 star read. John Boyne is a truly gifted writer and 'The Heart's Invisible Furies' is simply mesmerising.

Cyril Avery was born out of wedlock to 16 year old Catherine Coggins. Because of this, Catherine is banished from the small Irish Community where she's lived all her life. This is 1940's Ireland where Catholic priests very much ruled their communities. Publicly denounced as a whore by the parish priest in front of the whole congregation at Sunday Mass, she boards a bus for Dublin and turns her back on everything and everyone she's ever known.

Baby Cyril is adopted by a wealthy but unconventional couple, and although he isn't badly treated, he's never shown any real love and is constantly reminded that he's not a real Avery and never will be.

As Cyril grows older, he begins to realise that he's not like other boys, he has no interest in girls, and indeed when he meets Julian Woodbead at the age of 7, he's completely obsessed with him and this will continue for many years. He begins to see Julian as the love of his life, however it's a love that's not returned and something he has to keep secret - this was a time when it was a criminal offence to be homosexual, and at the very least would land you a severe beating.

As the years pass we share Cyril's life, firstly in Ireland, then onto Amsterdam where the laws were more lenient towards the gay community, and where he meets his future partner, and then finally to America, where he has to face one of the biggest tragedies of his life.

Oh gosh! This was a family saga of the highest order, covering seven decades, and it deals with issues that would appear unbelievable today. The author demonstrates how the Catholic Church created unbearable situations for families through it's hypocritical small minded beliefs.

It was an emotional read that had me chuckling at times, yet left me tearful at others. I became completely invested in the characters, and wanted to rage at the way Cyril was treated because of his homosexuality - he just wanted to live like everyone else with the one he loved - was that too much to ask?

The writing was that of a master at work, the characters were an eclectic bunch, but all the better for it, and the storyline broke my heart at times with its political and cultural prejudice.

At around 600 pages this isn't a quick read, but if you choose to read it, just savour every page, because if you're like me, you'll be really sorry when it comes to an end. A truly powerful read, and a tremendous finish to 2017.

*Thank you to Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for my copy in exchange for an honest review*

I don't think I have the words to review this book, and do it justice....it's brilliant. I laughed, I cried and I became completely involved with characters. Cyril Avery will stay with me forever, although he wasn’t quite a real Avery, he was certainly real to me. At times I had to put this book down to think through what i had read. Having read my way through 53 books this year this is my favorite read of 2017, so much so that i also have the audio version to, which is equaly fantastic.
One word of caution this is a gritty, real, and at times disturbing read, it's not hearts and flowers. Just stop what you are doing.....go purchase and read this book, it is simple brilliance. Surely a classic of the future. This one brings down all the stars for me ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

A beautifully written book which stretches over several decades. Although a point is made about attitudes to gays, it is subtly done and never takes away from the storyline.
The characters are varied and interesting. We really care about what happens to them, and a lot does!
Highly recommended

I’m going to start this review with a serious confession – I requested this book by accident, without even having read the blurb so when it appeared on my shelf I was let’s say ambivalent at best about reading – thank goodness I didn’t realise how long it was (592 pages) before I put it on the spreadsheet that must be obeyed! Well this was the best mistake (and there are a few to choose from) in 2017!

For all that it’s hard to explain just why I loved it so much without giving away any more than the synopsis, so please bear with me while I alternately gush and mush this review.

The Heart’s Invisible Furies is the story of Cyril Avery’s life, from before he was born in 1945 until old age creeps in 2008. Yes, I know that sounds like a saga, and it is, but not like any saga I have ever read. What it does have in common with that now unfashionable style is the depth of character that is gained by the sheer length of time covered, but John Boyne has decided that we will only catch up with our protagonist every seven years which means that the first time we meet him, he is a school boy living with his parents Charles and Maude in Ireland. But do not think that a seven-year old boy has nothing worth hearing, the scene is being set with an event that Cyril will carry forward with him and this characterises the beauty of the book; it might be a long book but nothing said ever feels like a filler, each part has either a meaning or its importance will become apparent later on.

I was drawn into the story right from the start with one of the most memorable openings I've read in a long while and although I didn’t have any preconceptions (that’s what happens if you choose a book with no more knowledge than the most famous book for children which the author had written) the style was far funnier than those absent preconceptions had anticipated.

But for all they never fought. Maude’s way of dealing with Charles was to treat him like an ottoman, of no use to anyone but worth having around.

That’s not to say this book is one big hoot, it definitely isn’t, to read it is to ride the highs and the lows of Cyril’s life with him as this shy, solitary schoolboy grows into a teenager and then to a man where he becomes a civil servant and beyond where he ventures out of Ireland.

The work itself was incredibly boring and my colleagues a little irritating, the engines of their days fuelled by personal and political gossip.

Sitting next to the vacuous and highly unfocused Miss Ambrosia

She generally had at least five men on the go, everyone from barmen to dancehall entrepreneurs, showjumpers to pretenders to the Russian throne, and had no shame in juggling them like some nymphomaniacal circus act.

The everyday scenes have imprinted themselves on my mind and I was soon willing things to work out for Cyril, because here we have a man who every time things seem to be working out, life has an uncanny knack of knocking him off his stride.

Of course just like in real life, some characters only appear for one of the seven year sections alongside Cyril, whilst some appear then fade into the background before reappearing, and some, sadly are with us for a few sections before disappearing completely. What never happens is that you are bored of any of the rich array of men and women who walk alongside Cyril.

And yet for all that this is a book which has something important to say, most obviously about Ireland and the position the church held, and the way they treated women and other sections of society, but along with the markers to show the passing of time, none of this is driven home in an unnecessarily heavy-handed way.
To bring this rambling and frankly unstructured review to a close, I will just say that I adored this book. I was deeply annoyed that I read it in the run up to Christmas, a time when it was necessary to put the book aside and engage with the three-dimensional people and do endless chores, all the time longing to get back to Cyril Avery and his tragedies and triumphs, the heart-breaking moments which are underpinned with its almost playful look at the absurdities of life.

I'd like to say a huge thank you to the publishers for providing me with a copy of The Heart's Invisible Furies, allowing me to laugh and yes, sob, with Cyril Avery, this review is my thank you to them and of course the accomplished John Boyne. I just have to say if you read this book, and it is at a bargain price on kindle at this very moment, then do read the afterword by the author which is touching and heartfelt and explains where the inspiration for this book came from.

This book is painful and awkward at times. So much so that I very nearly gave up half way through.
Thankfully it took a turn for the better when it moved from backwards Ireland to anything goes Amsterdam.
New York is where the meat of the book arrives, during terrible times when medical science plays catch up and ignorance reigns supreme.
I'm not sure about the return to Dublin but it was the only way to close the circle

2017 seems to have, as far as my reading choices are concerned, kept the best till last. The following review might sound as if I’ve been knocking back the sherries and become overly-infused with Christmas goodwill, but no, it’s just that I’ve spent the last few days in the company of this book which is undoubtedly the best book I’ve read (excluding re-reads) since I started this blog. It may very well be my favourite book of this decade.
I suppose we are all on the look-out for what we would consider to be “the perfect book”, the book that exactly matches the reader, the book which represents all that we are looking for in our reading and this, for me, may very well be it. Too often I’ve chosen a novel wondering if it could be “the one” and it hasn’t lived up to my expectations, or the hype, or it is unable to sustain the potential throughout the course of its pages. This, I think, has managed to pull together all that I look for in my fiction into one tidy volume.
The odd thing is that I’ve never actually read anything by Irish writer John Boyne before. I have had a copy of “The Boy With Striped Pyjamas” on my shelves for some time, but I don’t think I’ve yet get over seeing the very good film adaptation. My partner, who has read it, said it was one of the best books he has read, so perhaps the writing was on the wall. “Pyjamas” is aimed at the older child/YA market and that is where, up to now, Boyne has perhaps been most celebrated. I have picked up his books in shops and on library shelves and thought “I must get round to reading that”, but so far I haven’t. It feels like there’s almost been a kind of courtship before I committed myself to this author. So why has this worked so well for me? Why is there such a match?
It's a possibility that nationality has something to do with it. As far as I know I haven’t got a drop of Irish blood in me but I’m often attracted by the work of Irish authors. In recent years novels by Paul Murray, Donal Ryan and Sara Baume have appeared near the top of my end of year lists and there have been a number more who have written books that have really impressed me, including Anne Enright, Nick Laird, Sebastian Barry, Jess Kidd and Graham Norton. I have found myself favouring Irish and Irish-set novels (Hannah Kent’s “The Good People) and Emma Donoghue’s “The Wonder” both springing to mind) on this very blog.
Is it also because it has a gay central character and the novel explores a life-long battle with his own sexuality dominated by the repression of mid twentieth century Ireland. Gay themed novels are likely to resonate and Allan Hollinghurst, Sarah Waters, Armistead Maupin, Michael Carson and David Leavitt have written such novels which are amongst my all-time favourites. This book has pushed itself to the front of such esteemed company.
I’m also looking for characters to emotionally respond to and, boy, do I here, not just with the main characters but with a superbly drawn supporting cast which creates a novel of depth and feeling. I also like a book which is going to make me laugh, as so few do, and even fewer do so consistently. Paul Murray (another Irish author) with his tale of Irish financial institutions “The Mark & The Void” was the last to make me laugh as much as this.
I’m also a sucker for an epic sweep and this novel spans from 1945 to the present day. There is a potential pitfall here, which I’ve highlighted often and that is I can be reading a book and loving the narrative flow then the section ends and it’s twenty years later and you’re left trying to re-establish who is who and what’s going on. The danger being, of course, if you don’t like the new time-frame as much you find yourself yearning for a return to the earlier section. This is also a trap faced by multi-narrative novels. Here, I did feel occasionally saddened that a section I was so much into had ended but what came next was just as involving or even better. At over 700 pages it is not the longest novel I have read this year but avoids all of the potential pitfalls of the fuller-figured work and becomes a rare thing – a long novel that I just did not want to end.
Boyne keeps to the one first-person narrative and that person is Cecil Avery who begins his tale with his pregnant mother being denounced as a whore by the parish priest in the midst of the Mass, leading her to having to flee the village and deal with Cecil’s inevitable arrival in a Dublin where a single mother with child is not a good option for survival. Cecil is moved on and this is the tale of his life. I’m not giving much away in order to maximise your reading pleasure. I knew nothing about this book when I started it which heightened the experience and made the unpredictable turn of events throughout an absolute joy. I did spot that Rachel Joyce had enthused on the cover “Invest in this journey because it will pay you back forever” and I can’t remember agreeing with on-cover blurb more. Finishing it today (and I really slowed down on purpose, another great sign) I’m feeling quite bereft and am almost tempted to start the whole thing again, but recalling the recent memory of the Xmas tin of “Celebrations”, to gorge myself again so soon might be too much of a good thing.
Looking back over this I don’t know why I’ve spent the last few hundred words justifying why I’m praising this novel so much. Just get over it! It’s a superb book! I know that I’m stingier with my star ratings and with word of praise than many of the bloggers I follow and read but for me this book is exactly what the five star rating was made for. If you award the maximum to too many how can you ensure that the very, very best stand out.

The Heart’s Invisible Furies was published as a Black Swan Paperback in December 2017. Many thanks to Netgalley and to the publishers for the review copy.

I loved this book. I found it very emotional and heartfelt. The storyline catches you and doesn’t let you go until the end. I found I couldn’t put it down. Highly recommended. Five stars from me.

Thank you to Netgalley and John Boyne for the copy of this book. I agreed to give my unbiased opinion voluntarily.

Moving, heartbreaking and brilliant. This is a book that should be read by everyone.

This is a book that wasn’t even on my radar until fairly late on in the year, when I noticed just how many of my Goodreads friends had read it and rated it – almost without fail – 5 stars. I knew John Boyne’s name only through the movie version of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, and didn’t think I’d be interested in his work. But the fact that The Heart’s Invisible Furies was written in homage to John Irving (Boyne’s dedicatee) piqued my interest, and I’m so glad I gave it a try. It distills all the best of Irving’s tendencies while eschewing some of his more off-putting ones. Of the Irving novels I’ve read, this is most like The World According to Garp and In One Person, with which it shares, respectively, a strong mother–son relationship and a fairly explicit sexual theme.

A wonderful seam of humor tempers the awfulness of much of what befalls Cyril Avery, starting with his indifferent adoptive parents, Charles and Maude. Charles is a wealthy banker and incorrigible philanderer occasionally imprisoned for tax evasion, while Maude is a chain-smoking author whose novels, to her great disgust, are earning her a taste of celebrity. Both are cold and preoccupied, always quick to remind Cyril that since he’s adopted he’s “not a real Avery”. The first bright spot in Cyril’s life comes when, at age seven, he meets Julian Woodbead, the son of his father’s lawyer. They become lifelong friends, though Cyril’s feelings are complicated by an unrequited crush. Julian is as ardent a heterosexual as Cyril is a homosexual, and sex drives them apart in unexpected and ironic ways in the years to come.

For Cyril, born in Dublin in 1945, homosexuality seems a terrible curse. It was illegal in Ireland until 1993, so assignations had to be kept top-secret to avoid police persecution and general prejudice. Only when he leaves for Amsterdam and the USA is Cyril able to live the life he wants. The structure of the novel works very well: Boyne checks in on Cyril every seven years, starting with the year of his birth and ending in the year of his death. In every chapter we quickly adjust to a new time period, deftly and subtly marked out by a few details, and catch up on Cyril’s life. Sometimes we don’t see the most climactic moments; instead, we see what happened just before and then Cyril remembers the aftermath for us years later. It’s an effective tour through much of the twentieth century and beyond, punctuated by the AIDS crisis and focusing on the status of homosexuals in Ireland – in 2015 same-sex marriage was legalized, which would have seemed unimaginable a few short decades before.

Boyne also sustains a dramatic irony that kept me reading eagerly: the book opens with the story Cyril’s birth mother told him of her predicament in 1945, and in later chapters Cyril keeps running into this wonderfully indomitable woman in Dublin – but neither of them realizes how intimately they’re connected. Thanks to the first chapter we know they eventually meet and all will be revealed, but exactly when and how is a delicious mystery.

Along with Irving, Dickens must have been a major influence on Boyne. I spotted traces of David Copperfield and Great Expectations in minor characters’ quirks as well as in Cyril’s orphan status, excessive admiration of a romantic interest, and frequent maddening failures to do the right thing. But there are several other recent novels – all doorstoppers – that are remarkably similar in their central themes and questions. In Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life and Nathan Hill’s The Nix we also have absent or estranged mothers; friends, lovers and adoptive family who help cut through a life of sadness and pain; and the struggle against a fate that seems to force one to live a lie. Given a span of 500 pages or more, it’s easy to become thoroughly engrossed in the life of a flawed character.

The Heart’s Invisible Furies – a phrase Hannah Arendt used to describe the way W.H. Auden wore his experiences on his face – is an alternately heartbreaking and heartening portrait of a life lived in defiance of intolerance and tragedy. A very Irish sense of humor runs all through the dialogue and especially Maude’s stubborn objection to fame. I loved Boyne’s little in-jokes about the writer’s life (“It’s a hideous profession. Entered into by narcissists who think their pathetic little imaginations will be of interest to people they’ve never met”) and thanks to my recent travels I was able to picture a lot of the Dublin and Amsterdam settings. Although it’s been well reviewed on both sides of the Atlantic, I’m baffled that this novel doesn’t have the high profile it deserves.

An important book, affectionate, wry and painful by turns. I had only read The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne prior to this and this had much of the same simplicity and sweetness. I was particularly interested to read Boyne's thoughts at the end of the book about the Irish journey regarding gay marriage.

A great moving novel spanning many years and the life of Cyril. Really refreshing and quite heartbreaking

I think this book is going to be a huge success and one of the talked about books in 2018.

Spanning 70 years, it follows the life of Cyril, a homosexual Irish man who struggles in a society which doesn't accept 'his kind'. It is a long book, almost 600 pages, but they are needed to tell the tale. It is very well written and opened my eyes to the Ireland of yesteryear and the discrimination's people faced.

Highly recommended 5***** read.

It took me about three attempts to get into reading this book and I was almost at the point of giving up but I gave it one more go and I am so pleased that I did as this story is so moving, heart rendering and just so very very good. It goes straight into my top five books of 2017. If you do not know much about Ireland then this is a steep learning curve and has made me want to learn more about the country.
For a book about a gay man this brings so many other feelings into your thinking and just what things were like in the 50's for young boys that wanted to find love with a male. I didn't do much history in school and to read that it was illegal was a bit of a shock for me. John Boyne has written this with so much emotion that once you get past a couple of chapters you will not be able to put this down. Spanning from Ireland to Amsterdam to America the research is excellent, the characters are well described and all work well. The ending chapters are brilliant and nothing is left unanswered, I cannot praise this enough and you simply must read this.

Brilliant book, great modern fable but just too long. It feels like I’ve been reading it for a month. Enjoyed the various chapters in Cyril’s life and thought the opening sentence was one of the best I’ve read in a long time.

Each of the sections in the book was well written and dramatised with great interactions between the characters. Would do well as a screenplay, in fact it lacked depth of description - it was all action and interaction rather than descriptive. I’ve no idea what Cyril looked like in the author’s mind. Perhaps it’s not important, but that combined with the length of the book brings it down to a 3.5* for me

An interesting read but you’ve got to stick with it.
3.5*