What are you reading?
I’ve read that one, good book.
I, Alex Cross by James Patterson. Alex investigates the extremely gruesome murder of his niece
and uncovers horrendous corruption in it’s many forms at the highest level in Washington.
The 17th Suspect – (Women’s Murder Club #17)
by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
Another engaging book in this series, looking forward to reading the 18th.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
(Charlie Bucket #1)
by Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake (Illustrator)
Excellent bedtime story for my grandson, even when delivered over multiple nights & via video link. Actually enjoyed revisiting it my self
Just finished Sue Grafton’s ‘V is for Vengeance’, featuring her P.I. Kinsey Millhone. This is the 22nd
novel in the sequence of a book per alphabet letter. I have read all the ones from A-R, but have yet
to get my hands on S, T, and U, (bearing in mind that I get most of my books from our local charity
shops – purely from a philanthropic point of view, you understand!). Very good detective-type series,
and characters with whom you can identify.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts 1 & 2
Having seen the play about 18 months ago now, I relived the event. Brilliant!
@Cruzeroqueen1
In the novel, there’s a reference to Hannah Arendt’s description of W H Auden as displaying “the heart’s invisible furies” on his face.
Look at a picture of Auden in his later years, and the meaning is clear!
Thanks for that @GeminiJen – it sounds interesting. From the title I may well have dismissed it
as a “bodice-ripper” and not given it a second thought!
Synopsis:
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.
Cyril Avery is not a real Avery or at least that’s what his adoptive parents tell him. And he never will be. But if he isn’t a real Avery, then who is he?
Born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast out from her rural Irish community and adopted by a well-to-do if eccentric Dublin couple (via the intervention of a hunchbacked Redemptorist nun) Cyril is adrift in the world, anchored only tenuously by his heartfelt friendship with the infinitely more glamourous and dangerous Julian Woodbead.
At the mercy of fortune and coincidence, he will spend a lifetime attempting to know himself and to discover where he came from – and over his three score years and ten, will struggle to discover an identity, a home, a country, a place of belonging.
In this, Boyne’s most transcendent work to date, we are shown the story of Ireland from the 1940s to today through the eyes of one ordinary man. The Heart’s Invisible Furies is a novel about the search for a sense of self in a changing world and the ultimate, redemptive power of the human spirit.
Publisher: Transworld Publishers Ltd
ISBN: 9781784161002
Number of pages: 736
Weight: 492 g
Dimensions: 198 × 127 × 32 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
‘The Heart’s Invisible Furies is a deeply engaging and accomplished work. Screamingly funny one minute and heartbreaking the next.’ – The Daily Express
‘A special read’ – BBC Radio 4 Front Row
‘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, Boyne’s latest novel is an epic romp through recent Irish history. This is a novelist at the top of his game.’ – The Mail on Sunday
‘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
GeminiJen wrote:
GeminiJen
20:37 11-May-20
899John Boyne: The Heart’s Invisible Furies.
Would highly recommend.
What is the genre, and how about a short synopsis, please, @GeminiJen ?