About a Boy, Nick Hornby
About a Boy, Nick Hornby
1 Rating(s)
List: $4.00 | Sale: $2.80
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About a Boy

Author: Nick Hornby

Narrator: David Cale

Abridged: 2 hr 56 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 04/09/2004


Synopsis

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…

About The Author

Nick Hornby is the author of several internationally bestselling novels including High Fidelity, About a Boy, and A Long Way Down, as well as several works of nonfiction, including Fever PitchSongbook, and Ten Years in the Tub. He has written screenplay adaptions of Lynn Barber’s An Education, which was nominated for an Academy Award, Cheryl Strayed's Wild, and Colm Tóibín’s Brooklyn. He lives in London.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Anne

3.5 stars Not sure who I'd recommend this to, but I enjoyed it well enough. It's basically a story about a fucked up guy with zero substance, a fucked up 12 year old dork, and his fucked up crazy hippie mother. To me, none of these three were very sympathetic characters. I mean, Marcus was the only one......more

Goodreads review by Baba

2021 review: Living off of his family legacy, lounging around in life, trying-hard-to-be-cool man-child Will has found the secret to dating 'hot' woman of his age… targeting single mothers. Insular, and almost on the edge of autism, straight talking 12-year old social outcast at school, Marcus havin......more

Goodreads review by Lee

I have weird habit of reading books that were made into movies AFTER I've seen the movies. Dopey, right? I don't know why I love to do this. I guess just to see how it all turns out on the other end. Anyway, this review is pretty straight forward: "About a Boy" is awesome. Like the rest of Hornby's w......more

About a Boy is a book that I've dreamed about - a meaningful book about human relationships ( as opposed to adventures) that is to the point and not chock full of rambling and embellishing imagery. Sadly, I'm very honest, and I can't rate this 5/5. The reasons why I like this book and why I can't g......more


Quotes

"A follow up to High Fidelity...About a Boy is an acerbic, emotionally richer yet no less funny tale...shrewdly hilarious."—Entertainment Weekly 

"Hornby is a writer who dares to be witty, intelligent and emotionally generous all at once. He combines a skilled, intuitive appreciation for the rigors of comic structure with highly original insights about the way the enchantments of popular culture insinuate themselves into middle-class notions of romance."—The New York Times Book Review

"The conversations between Will and Marcus are hilariously loopy."—The Boston Globe

"An amusing male-bonding theme...stylish, well-observed"—People

"Writing with real 'soul.'"—Harper's Bazaar

"An utterly charming, picaresque tale of an older guy, a young kid, and the funky, dysfunctional real-life ties that bind—and unbind."—Vogue


Awards

  • ALA Notable Book
  • IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
  • New York Times Notable Book