The Invisible Furies of the Heart

In ancient Greek mythology, the Furies are goddesses of vengeance, and from this we already understand that this is a serious, deep novel that will not leave us indifferent. „Invisible Furies of the Heart“ is a book mostly about love, not always as we imagine it, sometimes treacherous, sometimes murderous. It's about loving not only another person, but also ourselves and striving to accept ourselves as we are.

Cyril Avery is not the real Avery, as his father keeps saying. His very young mother is banished from her native village in the deep Irish countryside after rumours that she is expecting a child out of wedlock. Cyril is adopted by a wealthy eccentric family in Dublin, where he lacks for nothing. Except love.

So begins this boy's life, full of victories and disappointments, incredible coincidences and fateful deeds. He is about to make the hard journey to find himself, his identity and his roots, to accept his unconventional sexuality and to swallow the cruelty of the world.

This is the most personal novel by John Boyne, one of Ireland's most interesting writers, and in it we find an impressive panorama of life in Ireland from the mid-twentieth century to the present, seen through the eyes of a man who is not a villain, though he causes pain, not a villain, though he happens to cheat, not a hero, though he saves and loves.

A moving, dramatic and picturesque odyssey of an ordinary man and an entire nation caught in time. A gripping, outrageous, paradoxical, at times funny, profound and clever book.