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*

Despite the fact that ‘The Heart’s Invisible Furies’ features bigotry, abandonment, child prostitution and murder, this Bildungsroman is a really uplifting read. We follow the adventures of Cyril Avery (not a real Avery as his adoptive parents are keen to let everyone know), a gay boy born in 1945, growing up in an intolerant Ireland amongst vicious priests who encourage judgemental attitudes at every turn. At one stage so appalled is Cyril by his own homosexuality that he tries to live a straight life with disastrous consequences. His adoptive mother dies when he is young, his adoptive father spends time in jail and his best friend, Julian, with whom he is obsessed, is entirely unaware of Cyril’s passion for him. The hundreds of sexual encounters he has in his 20s leave him feeling empty. With all this in mind, the story, which clearly charts the very gradual acceptance of gay rights over much of the twentieth century, could have been a very depressing read.
However, it really is very funny indeed and this is partly what turns the novel from a ‘worthy’ political read into a completely engaging, heart-warming experience. How could anyone not enjoy Cyril’s self-deprecating humour and waspish social commentary and rejoice in his ability to survive some pretty terrible experiences as he grows to accept who he is and play his part in an unconventional family group? Cyril Avery is a wonderful man; far from perfect, he struggles on as best he can whilst crazy coincidences and acts of God contrive against him.
John Boyne’s cast of larger than life supporting characters, sometimes infuriating, sometimes downright appalling, sometimes hilarious and sometimes entirely generous, play their supporting roles brilliantly too. Boyne has taken the subject of gay rights, central to his life, as he explains in his Afterword, and written a post-modern comedy of manners subverting all that we might expect. Even the final marriage is extraordinary: funny, delightful and an apt conclusion to Cyril’s story. A wonderful novel; I defy you not to take Cyril to your heart whilst you are also reminded of the terrible things that are done, over and over, in the name of religion.

This is a very cleverly written book that by rights should have been depressing but it has been written in an upbeat way with a smattering of comical parts. The details of life in Southern Ireland, ruled by the catholic priests was a real eye opener to me and if friends who had been out there had not told me how true it was I would have found it unbelievable as it was I was dumbfounded by the truth that was the basis of this book.
At times I felt sorry for Cyril who seemed to try so hard to hide the truth about himself to his friends, especially Julian. Although this is well written there are a few parts where a time lapse is not made clear until further on leaving the reader a little confused. Cyril has been given the characteristics of being so gentle and genuinely a caring person which is lovely. I have to say that the way this has been written highlights the many aspects of being a homosexual but I found that all the coincidences were unbelievable but were necessary to give the final consequences. I found that I did not want to stop reading as I needed to know the next episode in Cyril’s life. The characters were well described and could be imagined so easily as real people.

This tour de force from John Boyne is a magnificent saga of the last 70 years told from the viewpoint of one complex character. Cyril is illegitimate and homosexual - not a good background in mid to late 20th century Ireland. Cyril is more likely to make mistakes and bad decisions than most people which, combined with a certain amount of bad luck, leads to a troubled life for our storyteller. There are elements of humour to lighten things up and the general wit of the writing makes this novel a joy to read. Highly recommended.
Thanks to NetGalley for making the proof of this ebook available to me.

This is by far the best book that I have read in a very long time! In one sense funny and in other so very sad it is the story of a gay man born in an unforgiving Ireland.

Thanks so much to Penguin Random House via NetGalley for the opportunity to read this brilliant book. It rounds off an exceptionally happy reading year for me.

Everything I have long admired in Irish writing distilled into one novel. His ability to combine a lightness of tone with the darkness of the themes is a joy to read. I feel unable to do it justice, there are so many great reviews out there. Suffice to say I am going to buy it for everyone I know for Christmas and continue recommending it well into the New Year and beyond.

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK Transworld for my ebook copy of The Heart’s Invisible Furies.

The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne is the best book I have read this year, one of my all time best, featuring alongside Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks and An Equal Music by Vikram Seth. It is that good. A novel that spans seven decades, a tapestry of social and political events in post-war Ireland. A tale of one man seeking happiness, looking for his true self in a country beset by the Catholic church, moral hypocrisy and sexual repression. One man - Cyril Avery.

Who is Cyril Avery? Adopted at birth in 1945 by Charles and Maude Avery his adoptive parents who persist in telling him he is not a real Avery and never will be. Despite this he is well looked after and cared for by the wealthy Averys. He was born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast out from her rural Irish community. Cyril has no idea who his birth mother is. Cyril will spend a lifetime seeking an identity, a journey that will take him to many countries over his three score years and ten when happenstance will feature so often. The reader knows what Cyril doesn’t. Throughout, this results in passages of belly-laughing hilarity and heartbreaking moments that reduced me to tears.

This is the story of Ireland from the 1940s to today through the eyes of one ordinary man. It has made me laugh out loud and well up with tears, often on the same page. it reminds us of the redemptive power of the human spirit. The Heart’s Invisible Furies is a joy to read, a treasure, near six hundred pages of perfection.

I loved this book and have been fortunate enough to obtain the hardback edition signed by the author. A wonderful keepsake.

This is the first title I've read by this author, but what a start!

Initially I wasn't sure if I would enjoy this book - being a retired Left Footer, it reminded me of the numerous hypocrasies of the Church (particularly in Ireland) and many of its followers - however I persevered, and am glad I did!.

I admired Catherine's strength of character, quick wits, and open-mindedness in the face of adversity, and the book grew on me. I felt much sympathy for both Catherine and Cyril and it made me think about the trials their real-life counterparts must have gone through.

I grew fond of some of the other fine characters, whilst others (Julian in particular) left me cold. The fact that the writing illicits genuine human responses is a testament to this author, and I will be seeking out more of his work.

Without revealing the plot (which always annoys me in reviews!), I was glad that Cyril (and Catherine) grew in strength and courage and found happiness, love and kinship along the way.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read an advance copy in return for my honest review.

This book! It was absolutely wonderful, my book of 2017. I can't even write a review to do it justice, I just loved it and am telling everyone who will listen how brilliant it is! This is the first book from John Boyne I have read, but certainly won't be the last.
A substantial read, one to savour and not rush through, this tells the story of Cyril Avery (not a real Avery of course). The reader is there for his birth and meets up with him again every 7 years when we find out what significant life events he is going through. He is born to an unmarried mother who has him adopted, and every 7 years, their circumstances draw them closer together.
This is a damning indictment on the vast influence and cruelty of the Catholic Church in Ireland. The treatment of his mother by the church is horrific, and the prejudice and cruelty Cyril is subjected to as a gay man is just heartbreaking. However, this is also a very funny book, I was howling with laughter, then heartbroken and in tears, regularly when reading this. The characters are wonderfully written and the story is just amazing, I would urge everyone to read this book.

Trite though it may sound, I loved The Hearts Invisible Furies by John Boyne.     Surely there's a more eloquent way of describing my feelings towards this book but right now that's the one that fits best.      From the first page I was captivated by the writing, by the voice of Cyril our narrator.    I could hear the delicious Irish accents so clearly and I adored the humour in his telling.    It was a moving story - one which told of disappointments, heartbreak and tragedy over the course of 70 years - and yet I did more than my fair share of laughing.   Yes the odd tear escaped too, I'll admit it, but the heavy content was handled perfectly.    By advancing the story by seven years with each chapter Boyne cleverly managed to bring the reader up to date without exaggerating the sentimentality.  

Cyril, our narrator, is 70 years old looking back over his life. His story begins before his birth and we hear of his mother being cast out of the family at age sixteen, in disgrace for being unmarried and pregnant.     She adopts out her newborn son and he is raised by his adoptive parents Charles and Maude Avery.     Not especially likeable, these two were highly entertaining characters for all the wrong reasons.     Wildly inappropriare and particularly unsuited to parenthood Cyril simply accepted his lot in life with this couple as his parents.    His life was a continual struggle to find his place in the world, to conform to societal norms, to accept himself and not  necessarily to expect happiness but to make the best of a bad situation.  Cyril said it best with this quote <i> "... I didn’t have the courage or maturity to be honest with myself , let alone with anyone else. But on the other hand, my life is my life. And I am who I am because of what I went through back then. I couldn’t have behaved any differently, even if I’d wanted to."<i/>

Having just finished this wonderful book I feel incredibly grateful to the various Goodreads friends who steered me towards it.   Naturally I am thankful for the incredible talents of John Boyne a new-to-me author and I look forward to exploring his other works.     Thanks too to the publishers Random House UK and NetGalley for making it possible for me to review this digital ARC.   The pleasure was all mine.