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Synopsis
Will is thirty-six but acts like a teenager. Single, child-free and still feeling cool, he reads the right magazines, goes to the right clubs and knows which trainers to wear. He's also discovered a great way to score with women - at single parents' groups, full of available (and grateful) mothers, all waiting for Mr Nice Guy. That's where he meets Marcus, the oldest twelve-year-old in the world. Marcus is a bit strange: he listens to Joni Mitchell and Mozart, he looks after his Mum and he's never even owned a pair of trainers. Perhaps if Will can teach Marcus how to be a kid, Marcus can help Will grow up - and they can both start to act their age ...
Reviews
Customer Review: 25 November 2003
Reviewer: Hildur, Iceland
This was one of the most entertaining books i've ever read. I sure recommend you to read this one!!
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Customer Review: 11 September 2002Critic Review:
Hugely entertaining.... About a Boy is laughter in the dark.'
The Times
'A touching tale that deserves to make every adult laugh out loud'
Mail on Sunday
'It takes a writer with real talent to make this work, and Hornby has it - in buckets'
Literary Review
' a stunner of a novel... Utterly read-in-one-day, forget-where-you-are-on-the-tube gripping'
Marie Claire
'Such a good read'
Daily Telegraph
Interview
Penguin.co.uk: Is About a Boy a book about having to grow up too early - not being a real child and never experiencing childlike things?NH: I think it's about learning to experience childlike things in exactly the same way as everybody else in order to survive. All the things that make Marcus unique and such a weird kid are the very same things that are damaging him. So it's more about learning to be the same as everybody else in a slightly depressing way, I think. P: Do you feel that About a Boy is darker than High Fidelity with its suicide attempts and broken marriages, and screwed up children and so on?
NH: I was conscious of wanting to be a bit darker when I wrote About a Boy. I think the process generally is to try and get darker and funnier as much as I possibly can, and I think How to be Good is a step on in that way, as well. P: I suppose all your novels have slightly ambiguous endings don't they, particularly About a Boy?
NH: I think the resolution in About a Boy is not so much ambiguous as double-edged. Clearly Marcus is going to be alright, but in the process of being alright he has completely lost any sense of himself and we lose sense of the child that there was throughout the book. I think that that's quite sad and quite a sacrifice. P: How do you feel about Hugh Grant playing Will in the forthcoming film of About a Boy?
NH: Good. He's wanted to do the part for a long time, which I think is a good sign, and his post-Bridget Jones incarnation as a baddy will serve him well.
Product details
Format : Paperback
ISBN: 9780140293456
Size : 129 x 198mm
Pages : 288
Published : 26 Oct 2000
Publisher : Penguin
Other formats for About a Boy:
» Paperback : £7.99
» ePub eBook: eBook : £8.00
About a Boy
£7.99
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