From the author of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, a sweeping, heartfelt saga about the course of one man's life, beginning and ending in post-war Ireland.
Cyril Avery is not a real Avery-or at least that's what his adoptive parents tell him. And he never will be. But if he isn't a real Avery, then who is he?
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 many years-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 to make you laugh and cry while reminding us all of the redemptive power of the human spirit. Winner of the 2018 Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award
Finalist for the 2018 Lambda Literary Award
Longlisted for the 2019 International Dublin Literary Award
An Amazon Best Book
A New Statesman Book of the Year
A Kobo Best Book of 2017
A Chicago Review of Books Best Book of 2017
Nominated for the 2017 Goodreads Choice Award
"By turns whimsical and heartbreaking, Boyne's sprawling novel treads Dickensian territory across seven decades of Irish history, ending with a redemption for both a country and a native son." -People
"Boyne's fictional portrait of postwar Ireland and its people is nightmarish but utterly compelling... The appalling comedy of Cyril's childhood and youth, the vigour, the mess, the stir and life and horror of it all form the heart of a substantial achievement." -The Guardian (UK)
"Tender, dark, hilarious, heartbreaking-I loved it." -Vogue
"With quick strokes and bitter humor, Boyne's opening scene encapsulates the Irish church's hypocrisy... Boyne continues his crusading ways with the quiet keening of this painful, affecting novel." -Kirkus, starred review
"Boyne, who has a wonderful gift for characterization, does a splendid job of weaving these various lives together in ways that are richly dramatic, sometimes surprising, and always compelling... Often quite funny, the story nevertheless has its sadness, sometimes approaching tragedy. Utterly captivating and not to be missed." -Booklist, starred review
"With intricate narrative precision, The Heart's Invisible Furies cuts to the heart of what family is, how it is chosen and how it endures. And it is charming and funny, even as it dives down from the precipice of endearing humor into the very specific ironies and cruelties of real life... Characters are cinematically rendered, with a deft, decadent wit that will make you laugh aloud at least once. Searing heartbreak; loneliness; a quest for internal and external redemption, solace and contentment are all there in The Heart's Invisible Furies." -The Millions
"Bleak, bittersweet and Irish to the bone. [The Heart's Invisible Furies] explore[s] the relationship between Catholicism and patriarchy in midcentury Ireland and beyond."
-O, The Oprah Magazine
"[The Heart's Invisible Furies] is a beautifully written epic and will make you laugh and cry in equal measure." -New Statesman
"An epic full of verve, humour and heart... sure to be read by the bucketload... Deeply cinematic [and] extremely funny." -The Irish Times
"Boyne writes scenes that will make a reader laugh and cry-without saccharine sentiment or flippancy. Infused with heart and humor, as well as a keen sense of man's capacity for cruelty, The Heart's Invisible Furies pulsates with li
