About a Boy

Format:	Paperback 288 pages

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Synopsis

Nick Hornby's second bestselling novel is about sex, manliness and fatherhood. Will is thirty-six, comfortable and child-free. And he's discovered a brilliant new way of meeting women - through single-parent groups. Marcus is twelve and a little bitnerdish: he's got the kind of mother who made him listen to Joni Mitchell rather than Nirvana. Perhaps they can help each other out a little bit, and both can start to act their age.

Book details

Published
26/10/2000

Publisher
Penguin Books Ltd

ISBN
9780140293456

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UK Kirkus review

Hornby displays his knack of turning a superficially slight tale into something more meaningful. About a Boy is actually about two boys: Will Freeman, 36 years old going on 18, leads a hedonistic lifestyle, funded by a Christmas hit written by his father in the 1930s; and Marcus is a confused 12-year-old, brought to London by his depressed bohemian mother. The two find each other when the childless Will, testing out a new way of meeting women, joins SPAT, a single parents group. Marcus has a lot of problems - a suicidal mother, an uncool haircut, and he doesn't know who Kurt Cobain is. Because he's different, he is bullied at school and Will, who understands these things, is able to help the mature but introverted Marcus come out of himself and learn to enjoy being a boy. Hornby writes movingly about the major and minor problems of living a decent, humane life in 1990s Britain. (Kirkus UK)

About the author

Nick Hornby

Nick Hornby was born in 1957 and worked as a teacher before becoming a full-time writer. His books are FEVER PITCH (1992), HIGH FIDELITY (1995) and ABOUT A BOY (1998). In 1999 he won an E. M. Forster award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in north London.