[REVIEW] The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne

This book has been everywhere since September/November time: on Goodreads, on Instagram, Twitter etc. I read a few raving reviews and have wanted to read it ever since and when I got the chance I was so excited! I am so glad I had the chance to read it because this book is something very special.

The Heart’s Invisible Furies follows Cyril Avery from the age of seven and decade by decade into his seventies. Cyril Avery is someone who has been left as a child in care of two very peculiar people, Charles and Maude Avery. His adoptive parents’ peculiarity is pretty extreme because from an early age Cyril learns a lot by looking at them and observing their behaviour. One of the things his adoptive father always says to him is: ‘You’re not a real Avery’ which is a sentence he will remember all his life.  Since we follow Cyril decade by decade what happens next is that we follow him as he goes on to college and becomes acquainted with a boy named Julian. They become very good friends and their friendship is something that we learn a lot about throughout the book. This will be all I’m going to say about the synopsis of this book.

‘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. I could grow my own food and never have to speak to a soul..’

“I was deluding myself, for love was one thing but desire was something else entirely.”

“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’ve always believed that if women could only collectively harness the power that they have then they’d rule the world.”

The Heart’s Invisible Furies is a book that leaves a mark on you – its story makes you turn the pages and dive into Cyril Avery’s life filled with moments of happiness and moments of great sadness. I loved the humour in this book and the line which has stayed with me is the ‘Cyril II’ because every time Cyril II was mentioned I cracked up. I laughed out loud reading this book and felt very sad and angry reading it. Boyne touches on many topics such as homosexuality in Ireland, the view of the church which was very assertive at that time, the AIDS crisis and much more. After I finished the book I quickly found the pages where Boyne talked about the inspiration behind this book and why he wrote it which I really enjoyed reading because it gave a new dimension into the story. This book has been pretty hyped up but it doesn’t fail like most hyped-up books tend to do – it is truly brilliant. I love following stories that span through decades like A Little Life so I knew that I would enjoy this one as well. I just found a small tiny thing annoying in the book and that was seven-year-olds talking about sex because it didn’t feel realistic [I might be wrong] but other than that I have no complaints. Once again, a wonderfully told story about a gay man and his struggles with finding himself.

You can obviously see by my review and rating that this is a book you should be picking up and reading ASAP.

I would like to thank the publisher Transworld Books (Black Swan) for sending a copy of this book my way in exchange for an honest review. I am forever grateful.

My rating: 

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John Boyne (born 30 April 1971 in Dublin) is an Irish novelist. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and studied Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, where he won the Curtis Brown prize. In 2015, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by UEA. John Boyne is the author of ten novels for adults and five for young readers, as well as a collection of short stories.
His novels are published in over 50 languages. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, which to date has sold more than 7 million copies worldwide, is a #1 New York Times Bestseller and a film adaptation was released in September 2008…

Find him on: Website,  GoodReads, Twitter.