Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime and start saving today with fast, free delivery

Kindle
from $2.99

Audiobook
$0.00
with membership trial

Hardcover
$10.20

Paperback
$14.27

List Price: $16.00 Details

Save: $1.73 (11%)

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns

FREE delivery January 3 - 5 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35

Or fastest delivery Wednesday, January 3

Arrives after Christmas. Need a gift sooner? Send an Amazon Gift Card instantly by email or text message.

Select delivery location

Available to ship in 1-2 days

$$14.27 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Ships from

Amazon.com

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Returns

Returnable until Jan 31, 2024

Returns

Returnable until Jan 31, 2024

For the 2023 holiday season, eligible items purchased between November 1 and December 31, 2023 can be returned until January 31, 2024

Read full return policy

Payment

Secure transaction

Payment

Secure transaction

We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more

Details

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery Thursday, January 4 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35

Arrives after Christmas. Need a gift sooner? Send an Amazon Gift Card instantly by email or text message.

Select delivery location

Used: Good | Details

Sold by Jenson Books Inc

Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Other Sellers on Amazon

Added

Not added

$11.19
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: Ambis Enterprises

Follow the author

Nick Hornby

Follow

About a Boy Paperback – Unabridged, May 1, 1999

by Nick Hornby (Author)

4.2 1,673 ratings

Part of: Movie Tie-In (2 books)

See all formats and editions

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$14.27","priceAmount":14.27,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"14","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"27","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"T3bCUEryKd%2FRi6lbGOUdIvm5UKGTrV0wY1Yu6heYayY5vSmRvTXhvXqh9wUzh02EnZkWEYtF4RPKe07oI6AqVkQ0j3hL6z1K5xvoDmutVOmqeEst4aQzCtmxXHBkncetCbHFYPSQt3w%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$8.65","priceAmount":8.65,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"8","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"65","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"T3bCUEryKd%2FRi6lbGOUdIvm5UKGTrV0wnNYjCPwlmWTq4FXMPDp%2F5UJDektiMH3%2FtHv0Ny53JL9ypoPkExYPobCRQtEMPGciFdlU7SCIxrdwyzdge6l00iSSfxyPxFw1Xj4nlGv1AtHwHt1CeADXPv4s7dK%2FqlJpIyMsSEGBd2ZvtHwpCTcjWDOIr%2FUzEEt1","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

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…

Part of series

Movie Tie-In
Print length

336 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Riverhead Books
Publication date

May 1, 1999
Dimensions

5.1 x 0.85 x 8 inches
ISBN-10

0965593894
ISBN-13

978-0965593892
Lexile measure

840L
See all details

Frequently bought together

$14.27

Available to ship in 1-2 days

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

+

$13.89

Get it as soon as Wednesday, Jan 3

In Stock

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

Total price:

To see our price, add these items to your cart.

Try again!

Details

Added to Cart

One of these items ships sooner than the other.

Show details Hide details

Choose items to buy together.

Douglas Adams
24,637
Paperback
Teachers' pick
87 offers from $2.86
Nick Hornby
1,326
Paperback
163 offers from $1.25
Merlin Sheldrake
7,655
Paperback
55 offers from $6.72
Pat Conroy
8,626
Paperback
61 offers from $8.80
Tommy Orange
15,707
Paperback
174 offers from $1.43
John Green
8,361
Paperback
43 offers from $10.02

Editorial Reviews

Review

"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

About the Author

Nick Hornby is the author of seven internationally bestselling novels (Funny Girl, High Fidelity, About a Boy, How to be Good, A Long Way Down, Slam and Juliet, Naked) and several works of non-fiction including Fever Pitch, Songbook and Ten Years In The Tub. He has written screenplay adaptions of Lynn Barber’s An Education, nominated for an Academy Award, Cheryl Strayed's Wild and Colm Tóibín’s Brooklyn. He lives in London.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1573227331
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Riverhead Books (May 1, 1999)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0965593894
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0965593892
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 840L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.1 x 0.85 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #723,292 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #438 in British & Irish Humor & Satire
- #5,672 in Humorous Fiction
- #32,982 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.2 1,673 ratings

Important information

To report an issue with this product or seller, click here.

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Nick Hornby

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Nick Hornby was born in 1957, and is the author of six novels, High Fidelity, About a Boy, How To Be Good, A Long Way Down (shortlisted for the Whitbread Award)Slam and Juliet, Naked. He is also the author of Fever Pitch, a book on his life as a devoted supporter of Arsenal Football Club, and has edited the collection of short stories Speaking with the Angel. He has written a book about his favourite songs, 31 Songs, and his reading habits,The Complete Polysyllabic Spree. In 2009 he wrote the screenplay for the film An Education. Nick Hornby lives and works in Highbury, north London.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5

1,673 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Aaron

great book one of hornbys best

Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2016

Verified Purchase

I finished this novel in a brisk pace, all credits to the author for providing an hilarious read. It takes immense talent to keep the readers on track of a simple plot with lots of hidden meanings in it, Nick Hornby has these talents in buckets.
clearly I'm now a huge fan of his works, I have already read High Fidelity and now I have just noticed that one of my favorite films "An Education" is also an adaptation of his novel.
so this is not my first experience reading Nick Hornby, and i am a huge fan of the films based on his work (some of which he wrote the screenplays for). In the case of ABOUT A BOY, the first two acts of the book and the film are identical, while the resolution is a bit more of a broad comedic note in the film.
I think what appeals to me most about Hornby's writing is his ability to create comedy through dialogue by making the characters so different from one another that they may as well be speaking different languages. Almost none of the characters ever truly understand what the others mean by their words, though Will comes the closest.
Highly entertaining overall so I am happy to say this book is fantastic. It contains everything I love about Hornby books.
It has characters that the reader cares about, a very real struggles that any reader can relate to, and that strange accomplishment of solving every one of life's problems without actually giving a single answer. Great stuff.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Steve

Delightful book - I'm curious to read more Hornby

Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2017

Verified Purchase

“About a Boy is a sweet, charming, and dryly humorous novel, one that was a joy to read. Author Nick Hornby has a definite skill for conversation, drawing relatable people, and infusing it all with plenty of bone dry quips and emotional engagement. What’s most satisfying is that Hornby manages to be perceptive and sage while keeping the reader from getting bogged down in excess verbosity. In short, he does a lot with a little and had me re-reading passages just to marvel at the simple brilliance in his writing. This one is the highlight for me: “This thing about looking for someone less different... It only really worked, he realized, if you were convinced that being you wasn't so bad in the first place.” That line almost had me in tears.

The movie, which sent many searching for this book, took liberties, as they often do, but they also cast the characters perfectly. It’s nigh on impossible not to see the actors in my mind as I read, and while that can be a spoiler of sorts, in this case, it was a perfect augmentation. Still, the plot of the movie took a serious left turn about the time that Will meets Rachel. Furthermore, there is a lot of Ellie (Marcus’ crush in the movie) that never made the movie, especially her connection with Nirvana and Kurt Cobain, a theme that runs through the novel. Why something so easy to include in the movie was left out in favor of a fair amount of plot contrivances that were never in the book is a mystery to me.

I’ve been reading a lot of fairly easy fiction lately and it’s a lovely break from both reality and the stack of philosophically deep, but ultimately dry and ponderous books I’ve been bogging down in lately. If you’re looking for a smart and funny novel that can be read in a few days, you might find “About a Boy” as pleasant and entertaining as I did. I may just investigate another of Hornby’s works, and I can think of no better compliment.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

mrliteral

About a great book

Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2003

Verified Purchase

Having watched the movie around seven months ago, I decided that reading the book upon which About a Boy is based would be a good idea. After all, the movie was good and the books are usually better than the movies, so what could go wrong. Happily, not much.
This novel is about two characters: Will and Marcus. Will is a shallow man who knows he is shallow and enjoys it immensely; thanks to an inheritance, he is financially independent, so he spends his days having fun and avoiding commitments. Marcus, on the other hand, is a twelve-year-old plaugued with a depressed mother and a school where he does not fit in. Will needs more depth in his life, and in ways, Marcus needs more shallowness. It is left to the reader to determine who is the boy in the title.
This is a funny book but it also has real heart. Done incorrectly, Will could come off unpleasant, but Hornby succeeds in making him likeable. Marcus could come off as pathetic, but he is definitely better than that. Since this story is character-driven (what plot there is exists only to further character development), it is essential to have interesting, multi-dimensional characters and this book has plenty of them. Even Will, who strives to be one dimensional, has more to himself than he would like to admit.
For those who have seen the movie, the first two-thirds of the book is very similar to the film; on the other hand, the last portion goes in a different but successful direction. Thus, whether you've seen the movie or not, this is a great read, fun from start to finish.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

kb

Interesting Male POV, but lots of language

Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2019

Verified Purchase

I’ve been researching how to better tell stories in a realistic male POV, and this book came up so I thought I’d give it a go. I thought the “inner workings” of what goes on inside the head of a man and young bullied boy was interesting—especially when forced to confront uncomfortable truths.

Where the book loses stars for me is the frequent and in my opinion, useless use of the F word (around 2 dozen times), and nearly every adult in the book comes off as extremely irresponsible in their life choices.

**Possible Spoilers Below**

Are there really that many single mothers with kids in the inner circle of one twelve year old boy? I can see yes, when they were actually at the SPAT group, but not so much in every day life. To me, it didn’t come off as realistic to have every friend of Marcus’s mother be single with kids with hardly any of them re-married and for Will to happen to run into another single mother with a kid at a New Years party.

Ultimately if you can stomach the language and the fact that marriage is viewed as pointless by main characters, you’ll enjoy the relationship between Will and Marcus

3 people found this helpful

Helpful