The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne

Truly the best of John Boyne - hilarious, touching and deeply sad The Heart's Invisible Furies is the breakout book Boyne was born to write.

The Richard and Judy Bookclub pick that readers are falling in love with.

'It’s been a long time since I read anything so compelling and satisfying. At times, incredibly funny, at others, heartrending’ - Sarah Winman, author of Tin Man

Forced to flee the scandal brewing in her hometown, Catherine Goggin finds herself pregnant and alone, in search of a new life at just sixteen. She knows she has no choice but to believe that the nun she entrusts her child to will find him a better life.

Cyril Avery is not a real Avery, or so his parents are constantly reminding him. Adopted as a baby, he’s never quite felt at home with the family that treats him more as a curious pet than a son. But it is all he has ever known.

And so begins one man’s desperate search to find his place in the world. Unspooling and unseeing, Cyril is a misguided, heart-breaking, heartbroken fool. Buffeted by the harsh winds of circumstance towards the one thing that might save him from himself, but when opportunity knocks, will he have the courage, finally, take it?

Winner of the 2018 Glass Bell Award for standout storytelling.

John Boyne

Reviews

“ Tender, dark, hilarious, heartbreaking—I loved it ”

Vogue

“ A special read ”

BBC Radio 4 Front Row

“ It’s been a long time since I read anything so compelling and satisfying. At times, incredibly funny, at others, heartrending ”

Sarah Winman, author of Tin Man

“ I ran through the whole range of human emotions while reading this brilliant novel. It's a masterpiece. ”

Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of The Last Act of Love

“ By turns savvy, witty and achingly sad . . . This is a novelist at the top of his game. ”

The Mail on Sunday

“ Screamingly funny one minute and heartbreaking the next. ”

Daily Express

“ Boyne creates lightness out of doom, humour out of desperately sad situations, creating a compelling page-turner… a terrific read. ”

The Press Association

“ An epic novel…. Worthy of the great master of the Irish comic novel, Flann O’Brien. The Heart’s Invisible Furies proves that John is not just one of Ireland’s best living novelists but also one of the best novelists of Ireland. ”

Sunday Express

“ Written with verve, humour and heart…at its core, The Heart’s Invisible Furies aspires to be not just the tale of Cyril Avery, a man buffeted by coincidence and circumstance, but the story of Ireland itself ”

Irish Times

“ Compulsively readable…hard to put down ”

Irish Independent

“ John Boyne is best known for his children’s novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. His new novel shows he can write movingly for adults as well… the cast is enormous yet at no point do we lose interest in Cyril. ”

The Sunday Times

“ The Heart’s Invisible Furies, by John Boyne, is like an Irish World According to Garp, by which I mean tender, dark, hilarious, heartbreaking—I loved it' ”

Vogue

Paperback

9781784161002

January 2, 2018

Black Swan

736 pages

RRP $26.00
Online retailers
Or

Find your local bookstore at www.booksellers.co.nz/directory
Hardback

9780857523471

February 15, 2017

Doubleday

608 pages

RRP $50.00
Online retailers
Or

Find your local bookstore at www.booksellers.co.nz/directory

Extract

The Good People of Goleen

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.