About a Boy

By: Nick Hornby

Narrated by: David Cale

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…©1998 Nick Hornby; (P)1998 Putnam Berkley Audio

Critic reviews

"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

good, with reservations

I love Nick Hornby. He's got a magical, masterful way of bringing characters to life, of making it impossible to stop reading because you are dying to find out what happens to them. In this book there are strong chords of story that make you think about the meaning of life, what love is, and other ponderables, but the writing is so fluid, the characters so vivid, and so much humor sparkles that it's not overwhelming. It's a lot of fun. Yet... quite a few times I found myself thinking that I must have accidentally clicked the jump forward button on my ipod, because there seemed to be big bites of plot missing. My suspicions were verified: this book is abridged and I didn't notice when I downloadeded it. I hate abridgements. If the author wanted the book to be shorter, he would have written less! This book has been hacked roughly with a machete-shaped editing pen. I recommend this book because Nick Hornby is really great, and the narrator does a good job too. But if you're like me you will be compelled to immediately go out and get an unabridged copy to see what's missing, so caveat emptor.

Had cuts

The audio book skipped a lot of paragraphs in the actual book so if you want to read along, it's very difficult

did i miss something?

I listened to this book, but was confused when it abruptly ended. There is a spoiler ahead, so only read if you know the basic plot...

So Will meets Rachel, and lies by saying that Marcus is his son. I was waiting for the eventual confrontation when the truth came out, but somehow it never caught up with him, never came to light despite the fact that their "sons" become best friends, as do Rachel and Marcus' real mother Fiona. huh?!? I really don't think I missed anything; I listened to it straight through. I even went back through it.

Can someone explain, I know this is abridged, but could they really have cut out such a huge part of the story? Or is it really possible that it's not addressed in the book? Marcus even mentions about his real father to Rachel's son and in front of Will, and there is no astonishment or recognition from Rachel's son nor embarrassment on Will's part.

Totally confused.

Otherwise "About a Boy" has a good reader, interesting and witty story, but like I said -- confusing, unresolved and abrupt ending, like they slapped on a "The End" three quarters through.