About the book

The novel “About a Boy” by Nick Hornby was written in 1998. It deals with the friendship between Will, who is thirty-six and Marcus, who is twelve years old. 
Will, a thirty-six-year old single, is constantly concerned with “being cool”. He lives in a state-of-the art flat in London with the latest video and stereo, the trendiest kitchen and the most modern household appliances. He wears the most fashionable clothes and spends his days going shopping, visiting the pub or driving around in his sports car. 

He doesn’t have to work because he lives off the royalties from a X-mas song written by his father. Moreover, he knows how to score with women and prefers short-term relationships. When he learns that single mothers are easy to please, he joins SPAT, a club of single parents and invents Ned, his two-year-old son.

One day he meets Marcus, a twelve-year old outsider, who has not got any friends at his age because of being different from the others. The only person Marcus is close is his mother Fiona. He is brought up by her as a kid of the seventies. He listens to the wrong music, wears the wrong clothes and, actually,  everything is wrong with him. He does all to please his suicidal mother whom he is worried about a lot.  Marcus seems to be more mature than a twelve-year old boy, quite the opposite of Will who behaves like a teenager. First Will is not very amused by Marcus’ visits, but later he appreciates his companionship and vice versa.
In the course of time Marcus learns from will and Will learns from Marcus …

It is pretty funny to read the book and learn how Will and Marcus become friends and how their lives change.

(Jan Fritzowsky)