The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne

From the beloved New York Times bestselling 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 glamourous 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. @goodreads 

The first paragraph of the book is what grabbed me:

Long before we discovered that he had fathered two children by two different women, one in Drimoleague and one in Clonakilty, Father James Monroe stood on the altar of the Church of Our Lady, Star of the Sea, in the parish of Goleen, West Cork, and denounced my mother as a whore.

Pretty powerful stuff, that. Little Cyril is telling the story as a babe not even born yet and the story he told, whew. I was appalled at what that priest did to his mom. Threw her out of town and hit her. I really can't stand those priests of old.

Catherin Goggin is a 16 year-old-girl who is pregnant and kicked out of the only home town she has known. But she makes it in Dublin with the help of some wonderful people. Some that didn't have a happy ending themselves.

Cyril is adopted to another couple who are very strange. I guess they loved Cyril in their own way and was never hurt but all of his life he seemed to miss out on something. A little clueless to things in the world.

The story is told in different times of Cyril's life, from birth until old age. It is all very bittersweet and there are some really funny moments. I really enjoyed Cyril. I thought he was funny and sweet and as an adult he had some hard times. Friends dying or being killed.

Cyril was a gay man living in a time where you could be put in jail for it or killed and nothing done about it. Some of the things are just too horrific to even think about.

I loved how the story connected so many people in the book over the years. Cyril even meets his real mom at one point and neither of them even know it. I wanted to scream at someone, but that's the way it goes.

The ending made me very happy, some sadness, but mostly happy

Mel ♥

*Thank you to bloggingforbooks for a hardback copy of this book*

GOODREADS REVIEW:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2100899700