Chapter summaries

Chapter 1

The novel About a Boy by Nick Hornby begins with a conversation between a young boy named Marcus and his mother Fiona. Marcus asks if Fiona and her boyfriend, Roger, have split up, and Fiona confirms that they did. 

Marcus is curious about what will happen to the pizzas they ordered before Fiona and Roger’s argument started, but Fiona tells him she is not really thinking about that. Marcus asks why she and Roger split up, but Fiona finds it hard to explain. Marcus has observed that when his mom argues with her boyfriends, the arguments are often confusing and seem to lack a clear point.

Fiona appreciates that Marcus has been understanding about the changes in their lives since she and Marcus's dad separated four years before. Marcus thinks about the different experiences he went through since, with his parents’ new boyfriends and girlfriends and moving from Cambridge to London just a few weeks earlier. 

Marcus and Fiona eat the pizzas they ordered and watch a nature program on TV as Marcus wants to avoid watching soap operas that might remind Fiona of the troubles in her own life.

Chapter 2

Will Freeman is doing a questionnaire in a men's magazine to find out how cool he is bas...