The heart’s invisible furies

Introduction
The novel, The heart’s invisible furies by John Boyne, follows the life of Cyril Avery in the Republic of
Ireland. The story of Cyril is not the most bright as it is filled with horrific events. But the book
compensates by telling the story in a humorous way, lightening the dark themes a bit. The book
focusses on social matters and important moments in the history of the Republic of Ireland between
1945 and 2015. It mainly describes the Catholic Church and the power it has over the lives of people
living in Ireland.

Summary
The book starts off by introducing us to Catherine Goggin, a pregnant 16 year old woman who gets
neglected by the Catholic Church and her family. In 1945 Western Ireland, it was a crime to be
unmarried and pregnant at the same time. Therefore, she heads out to Dublin. After living in Dublin
for a few months while working in a local teashop, her son, Cyril, is born and she immediately gives
him up for adoption.

Cyril is then taken in by Charles and Maude Avery. His adoptive father, Charles, works as a
businessman while his wife, Maude, writes novels. The book then skips to Cyril being 7 years old. He
meets Julian Woodbead and forms an intense bond with him. Julian is very charismatic, charming
and seems to behave older than his age. Him and Cyril share intense moments together, which
causes Cyril to question his own sexuality. Cyril develops a crush on him, but decides to hide his true
feelings as Julian isn’t homosexual and he does not want to ruin their friendship. He then wanders
into a local teahouse and befriends the owner of the teahouse, which is Catherine Goggin. He does
not know his real relationship with her yet, but he does entrust his feelings to her.

To hide his homosexuality, as this is illegal in Ireland, Cyril gets into a relationship with Mary-
Margaret Moffat. She’s a very strict Catholic girl. During their relationship, Cyril proceeds to have
secret encounters with other men. After a while, Mary-Margaret becomes suspicious of Cyril and
decides to follow him with a policeman. They did catch him in the act and Cyril almost got arrested
but he was saved when an IRA bomb breaks a statue which causes Mary-Margaret and the policeman
to get crushed to death.

After another seven years, Cyril is engaged to Julian’s sister Alice Woodbead. On their wedding day,
Cyril confesses his feelings to Julian, telling him he loves him. Julian gets angry and wants Cyril to
continue the wedding. Cyril does as he pleases but later on abandons his wife. He then flees to the
Netherlands, where homosexuality is legal. He meets a man named Bastiaan van der Berg, a doctor,
who he falls in love with and later on starts a family with. They adopt a son named Ignac. Cyril is
happy and can finally be himself, but his past haunts him as he remembers the people he has hurt.

The book really addresses some dark themes and how Cyril needs to cope with them. Cyril makes a
lot of mistakes, hurting the people around him with his actions. He has to hide his true identity in
order to stay safe, which causes him to lie and use people, for example Mary-Margaret and Alice.
When you think Cyril finally is at peace, he regrets his decisions in the past and becomes haunted by
it. Bastiaan and Cyril do not get their happy ending either, as they were attacked by bystanders who
were distraught of the sight of them hugging. Bastiaan ends up dead on the ground and Cyril
disabled.
After a while, Cyril decides to confront his past and returns to Dublin, Ireland. Meeting up with Alice
and his biological son Liam. He now cares for both Liam and Ignac. Afterwards, he finds out the true
identity of his mother, Catherine Goggin, and becomes the best man at her wedding.

Review
The author does have an interesting writing style. He gives us a glimpse of the main character every 7
years and the main character then narrates what is happening. The author also corporates some
humor into his writing.

“If there is one thing I’ve learned in more than seven decades of life, it’s that the world is a
completely fucked-up place. You never know what’s around the corner and it’s often something
unpleasant.” – (Cyril Avery) John Boyne, The heart’s invisible furies.

The book is about 580 pages long, which is definitely a challenge to get through. As an alternative to
reading the book myself, I chose to listen to a narrator reading the book for me. It made the process
of getting through the book a bit easier for me.

I would recommend the book to people that love to learn more about the Irish culture back in the
days. It talks about a lot of historical Irish aspects, such as the IRA, the influence of the church on Irish
citizens, immigration, etc. The book also relates to the troubles of today, with the acceptance of
homosexuality. The book is definitely worth spending your time on, especially now with the entire
Corona situation.