About a Boy

Hugely entertaining.... About a Boy is laughter in the dark.'
The Times

'A touching tale that deserves to make every adult laugh out loud'
Mail on Sunday

'It takes a writer with real talent to make this work, and Hornby has it - in buckets'
Literary Review

' a stunner of a novel... Utterly read-in-one-day, forget-where-you-are-on-the-tube gripping'
Marie Claire

'Such a good read'
Daily Telegraph

'Mushroom omelette and fries, please. And a Coke,' said Marcus.
'I'll have the swordfish steak,' said Will. 'No vegetables, just a side salad.'
Fiona was having difficulty deciding.
'Why don't you have the swordfish steak?' said Marcus.
'Ummm...'
He tried to get his mother's attention across the table without Will noticing. He nodded hard, once, and then he coughed.
'Are you all right, sweetie?'
He just felt it would help if his mum ordered the same food as Will. He didn't know why. It wasn't like you could talk for ages about swordfish steak or anything, but maybe it would show them that they had something in common, that sometimes they thought the same way about things. Even if they didn't.
'We're vegetarian,' said Marcus. 'But we eat fish.'
'So we're not really vegetarian.'
'We don't eat fish very often though. Fish and chips sometimes. We never cook fish at home, do we?'
'Not often, no.'
'Never.'
'Oh, don't show me up.'
He didn't know how saying she never cooked fish was showing her up - did men like women who cooked fish? Why? - but that was the last thing he wanted to do.
'All right,' he said. 'Not never. Sometimes.'
'Shall I come back in a couple of minutes?' said the waiter.
Marcus had forgotten he was still there.
'Ummm....'
'Have the swordfish,' said Marcus.
'I'll have the penne pesto,' said his mother. 'With a mixed salad.'

Will ordered a beer, and his mum ordered a glass of white wine. Nobody said anything again.
Marcus didn't have a girlfriend, nor had he ever come close to having one, unless you counted Holly Garrett, which he didn't. But he knew this: if a girl and a boy met, and they didn't have a boyfriend or a girlfriend, and they both looked all right, and they didn't mind each other, then they might as well go out together. What was the point in not? Will didn't have a girlfriend, unless you counted Suzie, which he didn't, and his mum didn't have a boyfriend, so...It would be good for all of them. The more he thought about it, the more obvious it seemed.
It wasn't that he needed someone to replace his dad. He'd talked about that with his mum ages ago. They'd been watching a programme on TV about the family, and some silly fat Tory woman said that everyone should have a mother and a father, and his mum got angry and later depressed. Then, before the hospital thing, he'd thought the Tory woman was stupid, and he'd told his mum as much, but at the time he hadn't worked out that two was a dangerous number. Now he had worked that out, he wasn't sure it made much difference to what he thought about the fat Tory woman's idea; he didn't care whether the family he wanted were all men, or all women, or all children. He simply wanted people.
'Don't just sit there,' he said suddenly.
Will and his mother looked at him.
'You heard me. Don't just sit there. Talk to each other.'
'I'm sure we will in a moment,' said his mother.
'Lunch will be over before you two've thought of anything to say,' Marcus grumbled.
'What do you want us to talk about?' Will asked.
' Anything. Politics. Films. Murders. I don't care.'
'I'm not sure that's how conversation happens,' said his mother.

ALA Notable Book
I.M.P.A.C. Dublin Award: Finalist

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