About a Boy

by Nick Hornby

307 pages

English language

Published Dec. 4, 2004

ISBN:: 978-0-14-028567-3
Goodreads:: 4271

(49 reviews)

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.

29 editions

Stephen Hayes reviewed About a Boy by Nick Hornby

None

4 stars

Marcus is 12 going on 36, and Will is 36 going on 12.

They meet when Marcus assassinates a duck on a pond and Will teaches Marcus how to act more like a kid, and Marcus teaches Will how to act less like a kid.

I saw the film 18 years ago on a plane flying along the Iraqi-Saudi Arabian border while waiting for the second Iraqi-American War to break out, and thought the book might be a fun read.

It was.

Merged review:

Read and reviewed a different edition.