Nick Hornby

About a Boy is Nick Hornby's comic and heart-warming million-copy bestseller 'How cool was Will Freeman?' Too cool! At thirty-six, he's as hip as a teenager. He's single, child-free, goes to the right clubs and knows which trainers to wear. He's also found a great way to score with women: attend single parents' groups full of available (and grateful) mothers, all hoping to meet a Nice Guy. Which is how Will meets Marcus, the oldest twelve-year-old on the planet. Marcus is a bit strange: he listens to Joni Mitchell and Mozart, looks after his mum and has never owned a pair of trainers. But Marcus latches on to Will - and won't let go. Can Will teach Marcus how to grow up cool? And can Marcus help Will just to grow up? This astonishing novel, now a modern classic, was adapted for the acclaimed 2002 film About A Boy, starring Hugh Grant and Nicholas Hoult. Fans of One Day by David Nicholls and Any Human Heart by William Boyd will devour this book, as will lovers of fiction everywhere.

About a Boy

Anne bosma

A wise, hilarious novel from the beloved, award-winning author of Funny Girl, High Fidelity and A Long Way Down. Will Freeman may have discovered the key to dating success: If the simple fact that they were single mothers meant that gorgeous women – women who would not ordinarily look twice a Will – might not only be willing, but enthusiastic about dating him, then he was really onto something. Single mothers – bright, attractive, available women – thousands of them, were all over London. He just had to find them. SPAT: Single Parents – Alone Together. It was a brilliant plan. And Will wasn’t going to let the fact that he didn’t have a child himself hold him back. A fictional two-year-old named Ned wouldn’t be the first thing he’d invented. And it seems to go quite well at first, until he meets an actual twelve-year-old named Marcus, who is more than Will bargained for…

I’ve had this book for a long time and love the movie, and am so glad I finally picked it up. This has definitely been the year where I’ve truly immersed myself into the genre of literary fiction and this is potentially one of my favourites that I’ve read.

Getting to see Marcus and Will’s relationship grow and unfold over the course of this book was so interesting and captivating. I felt so deeply for Marcus and wanted so badly for him to be protected. His character, and Will’s for that matter, felt so raw.

What’s interesting about this book and the characters Nick Hornby created is that they’re all so different. Marcus and Will could not be more opposite and yet they found friendship in one another’s company. Marcus is lonely, eccentric and completely unaware of what it means to be a 12 year old. Will is sarcastic, selfish and entirely free of the responsibilities of an adult. They come together in the most bizarre of circumstances and teach each other how to be who they can be. Marcus, a child, and Will, a grown up.

This is one of those books you could easily devour in a single sitting and it almost guarantees some big thinks about life and the magnitude of ways we can choose to live it.

Emilia Vulliamy

A throughly enjoyable read.

I’ve had this book for a long time and love the movie, and am so glad I finally picked it up. This has definitely been the year where I’ve truly immersed myself into the genre of literary fiction and this is potentially one of my favourites that I’ve read.

Getting to see Marcus and Will’s relationship grow and unfold over the course of this book was so interesting and captivating. I felt so deeply for Marcus and wanted so badly for him to be protected. His character, and Will’s for that matter, felt so raw.

What’s interesting about this book and the characters Nick Hornby created is that they’re all so different. Marcus and Will could not be more opposite and yet they found friendship in one another’s company. Marcus is lonely, eccentric and completely unaware of what it means to be a 12 year old. Will is sarcastic, selfish and entirely free of the responsibilities of an adult. They come together in the most bizarre of circumstances and teach each other how to be who they can be. Marcus, a child, and Will, a grown up.

This is one of those books you could easily devour in a single sitting and it almost guarantees some big thinks about life and the magnitude of ways we can choose to live it.

Inventing a son got Will into a single parents support group, but rather than a fabulous new sex life, he found someone else's very real son--a 12-year-old with a lot to teach about being a grown up. From the acclaimed author of High Fidelity comes this national bestseller that GQ calls clever and winning.

Lyric Hooey

Fun, easy, but wish the characters would have been developed more. I’d still recommend it if you’re looking for a fast read that leaves you feeling good!

Belle

I wasn't sure how much I'd like this, since I'm not usually a fan of fiction but I tried it because I remembered liking the film years ago. I actually liked it a lot! It wasn't hilarious but it was fun, and I definitely grew to care about the characters.

Hornby nails it again! Awkward 36-year-old Will stumbles through life, jobless, childless, and dateless. Hilarious & heartwarming, with a cast so real you'll want to hug 'em (maybe not Will...yet).

Liana

High Fidelity

About a boy

A nice, enjoyable read. Not particularly page turning, but a good story all the same.

Aistė

Riah Forbes 

I'm giving this a bonus star since I could hear the entire book in Hugh Grant's voice in my head. :)

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.

Georgia Carr

I loved this book. Nick Hornby has a really good way of telling stories in which nothing major happens. It's a real talent. Marcus and Will's friendship is perfectly crafted and developed; it's not rushed and it seems that every action is deliberate and necessary for the story to continue. All the characters are relatable, there any no Mary Sues, and Kurt Cobain gets talked about a lot which is always a good thing. About A Boy is the perfect coming of age novel for any age, which is something that is definitely hard to find.

Fernando Andrade

De las raras ocasiones en las que la película me parece mejor que el libro. El final de la película es totalmente diferente, pues el del libro deja mucho que desear. Además, hablan demasiado de Nirvana / Kurt Cobain... demasiado. Los de la película debieron darse cuenta de eso y ni siquiera lo mencionan.

Aun así, está entretenido y Hornby tiene una voz cálida y llena de humor -de ese inglés- que me convenció de leer más de él.

Robin de Jong

☆☆☆
Plot: ☆
The plot wasn't perfect, but it didn't have like specific flaws in it or something. It had some surprises and I think we could all learn a bit from the book. I think it was mainly the genre what I didn't like about this book, but I had to read it for my English class so ok..

Characters: ☆
The characters were fine, don't get me wrong, I because I definitely didn't like them at first. But they were well written with flaws some writers forget about, and I liked that.

Writing: ☆
I'll just give this one star, because the book was very fast-paced. I read it in only 5 days and I coudl've read it in a shorter period of time.

Would I reread it?: 0
Maybe, but no I don't really think so. The only reason why I would do that is because I like the writing style.

About a Boy

Reviews

Highlights