About a Boy

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...

will Is Thirty-six And Doesn't Really Want Children. Why Does It Bother People That He Lives So Happily Alone In A Fashionable, Lego-free Flat, With Massive Speakers And A Mammoth Record Collection, Hardwood Floors, And An Expensive Cream-colored Rug That No Kid Has Ever Thrown Up On? Then Will Meets Angie. He's Never Been Out With Anyone Who Was A Mom. And It Has To Be Said That Angie's Long Blond Hair And Big Blue Eyes Are Not Irrelevant To Will's Reassessment Of His Attitude Toward Children. Then It Dawns On Will That Maybe Angie Goes Out With Him Because Of The Children. That Maybe Children Democratize Beautiful, Single Women. That Single Mothers -- Bright, Attractive, Available Women - Were All Over London ... Marcus Is Twelve And He Knows He's Weird. It Was All His Mother's Fault, Marcus Figured. She Was The One Who Made Him Listen To Joni Mitchell Instead Of Nirvana, And Read Books Instead Of Play On His Gameboy. Then Marcus Meets Will. Will Belongs To His Mother's Spat Group (single Parents, Alone Together), And Will Is Cool. Marcus Needs Someone Who Knows What Kind Of Sneakers He Should Wear, And Who Kurt Cobain Is. And Marcus's Mother Needs A Husband. They Could All Move In Together! Marcus And His Mother, Will And His Son, Ned. Then Marcus Follows Will Home To His Flat, Where There Are No Toys Or Diapers, No Second Bedroom, Even -- And Certainly No Ned. This Was Valuable Stuff. If Marcus Went Home And Told His Mother About This Right Away, That Would Be The End Of It. But Something Tells Marcus That He Should Hang On To This Information Until He Knows What It's Worth.

hal Espen

hornby...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

A wise, hilarious novel from the beloved, award-winning author of Dickens and Prince, Funny Girl and High Fidelity 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... 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. EDITORIAL REVIEW: 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''. Will, a thirty-six-year-old London bachelor, undergoes a change in his outlook about marriage and children when he lies to join a single parents group in order to meet women, and becomes friends with a needy twelve-year-old named Marcus A comedy on a bachelor in London who specializes in affairs with single mothers. To improve his chances, he joins a single parents' association and gets a boy to pretend he is his son