About a Boy

Will, an idle, thirtysomething bachelor living in London who invents himself a son in order to score dates with young single mothers. Through this familial subterfuge he meets Marcus (Nicholas Hoult), the oddball 12-year-old son of a depressive hippie (Toni Collette) who turns his world around and eventually leads him to his dreamgirl (Rachel Weisz). “I think the kid is Hornby’s greatest creation,” Grant contends, “[and] maybe closest to his heart, because he’s …

…apart from those of Connolly or Amis. Will's friendship with Marcus - at first grudging, then resigned, and finally desperate - is both funny and touching. If About a Boy lacks anything, it is incident - like 'High Fidelity', this is a book where nothing much happens except people getting on with their lives. How Will Freeman gets on with his if he gets one at all is what About a Boy is all about.