The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne

★★★★★

The Heart’s Invisible Furies opens with the dismal, unkind truth at the heart of Irish Catholicism: homophobia, misogyny, deceit, and fear. However, despite this jarring introduction, the book challenges our preconceived notions of fate, nature-versus-nurture, and what love is meant to look like.

The story follows the life cycle of Cyril Avery, our gentle but blunt protagonist. As he grows, we see him in relationships that contrast with the "norm" and throughout his life we are presented with a range of relationships that are defined by and defy heteronormativity. For Cyril, his homosexual yearnings begin from a young age but his struggle with these feelings is internal, bordering on self-loathing. With this internal conflict, we the reader begin to wonder to what extent his struggle is to be blamed on the suffocating religion surrounding him or his own submissive and detached disposition.

Later in Cyril’s story, we find ourselves in the bright, metropolitan cities of Amsterdam and New York. Full of colour and vibrancy when compared to bleak Catholic-Ireland, Cyril’s life is seemingly on the road to acceptance and happiness. However, as the novel highlights, evil resides where it pleases, and all cities hold their own prejudices even without the iron rule of religion.

Throughout the book, we are regularly teased by the concept of fate, as if the universe is conspiring to bring Cyril and those he is meant to meet, meant to love together. Still, there is an element of repetitiveness when Cyril runs into the same people time and time again, sometimes eliciting a cycle of ‘surely not again’. However, it does cast some hope that no matter what happens, you will find your love and your happiness in the end, even if the nature of life has pulled you and your people apart.

A truly beautiful novel, written by a master of the written word, The Heart’s Invisible Furies is an insight into a life that was born without the love we naturally deserve and the resilient journey of discovering and accepting his own worth.