The Heart's Invisible Furies by John BoyneMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was a great, juicy, thick, fun read, chosen as the book of the year a few years back by the Book of the Month Club. The book begins with a young woman being expelled from her church and village upon her priest and family learning that she is pregnant out of wedlock. Through a little luck and a lot of perseverance, she makes her way to Dublin and finds both housing and work within a few weeks.
Next, we meet her son, who she has given up for adoption. He is adopted by a truly dysfunctional and loveless couple, who choose to adopt because they think they ought to, and who remind him ceaselessly that he is not "a real Avery." The book follows this boy as he grows into a young man and an adult, always curious about his origins, and (surprisingly) never bitter about his childhood.
At the same time that the book is a specific story about a specific man, it is also a meditation on Ireland, and all its prejudices and societal changes over several decades. I really enjoyed reading it, and it stuck with me for a long time.
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