The Heart’s Invisible Furies

Author/Guide: John Boyne

Why a Booktrail?

WW2 onwards: one man’s desperate search to find his place in the world.

ISBN: 978-1784161002
Genre: Fiction

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What you need to know before your trail

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?

Locations

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Ireland - County Cork
D: Skull - harbour
E: Skull - police

Netherlands - Amsterdam
F: Vondel Park
G: Westerkerk

America/ USA - NY - NYC
H: Central Park
I: 9/11 memorial

Travel Guide

Schull/Skull

Schull or Skull is a town in County Cork, Ireland. The name derives from a medieval monastic school, of which no trace remains. Located on the southwest coast, in West Cork, the village is situated in a scenic and remote location, dominated by Mount Gabriel. It has a sheltered harbour, used for recreational boating.

Dublin

A story about a Dubliner named Cyril Avery and details his life from his birth, and every 7 years after that

Dublin at the time was awash with hypocrisy and the leanings of the Catholic Church in post World War ll Ireland. This is a church and community fiercely opposed to homosexuality. If you were gay, you had to hide it, deny it, oppose it yourself.

This novel really drives home what Dublin was like and how it developed over the years. Abusive Priests, conniving church elders, abuse against gay men and women, the IRA, the religious questions – infact the very essence of Dublin. It’s the gay issue which rears it

Amsterdam

You remember how the people of Amsterdam during the seventeenth century would tie millstones around the necks of convicted homosexuals before throwing them into the canals and leaving them to drown?

However many years later, this is the city where they are able to visit galleries, Book stores, enjoy streets artists visit bars of all descriptions – experiencing the cultured life that Cyril didn’t have in Dublin.

New York

Central Park takes on a grave and sad tone here when one of the characters experiences a life changing event.

A character lives here for seven years and never feels that he really understands the city although he can see why others do. His head remains in Amsterdam and his heart is in Dublin. But the tall buildings and the honking of the yellow taxis remind him why he does admire it.

Booktrailer Review

Susan: @thebooktrailer

This is an epic read which touches on so many subjects and themes I knew little about. Ireland is so near and yet so far. What we hear on the news is just one part of it, and I have no idea of what it must have been like to live as a gay man in the 1940s onwards. The role of the church, the oppression an the fear of being ‘outed’ was not just a question of identity but it could get you killed. The attacks, the homophobia, is this the world we lived in and to some extent still do? Breathtaking in its cruelty and brutality but John Boyne illustrates a Dublin and Ireland which pulls at York shows more facets of this world and when we come up to the present day and the 9/11 attacks, the world of hatred has different targets but it sadly still exists.
This is a long read yes, but a worthy one and Cyril Avery a fascinating and worthy narrator with so much to tell. It’s an unforgettable book and has so many layers to it, with journeys, memories and humourous yet tear jerking events on every page.
It’s a sprawl of a novel but one which captures a series of black and white snapshots of a country in flumox – it’s the little details that come to the fore to fascinate.