Financially secure enough never to have had to work, thanks to his dad having once written a hit Christmas song, Will is a 36-year-old bachelor going on 15 intent on breaking into the world of lone mothers. In order to do this he has to invent a small son. So far so good, except he doesn't bargain on meeting Marcus, a worried 12-year-old going on 50, and Fiona his suicidal, hippie mother. Hornby's briskly paced, hilariously well observed study of the selfishness of singledom pitted against the anger and desperation of women who have been humiliated by the fathers of their children, is as real as it is funny and, at times, quite moving. While Will's crazed antics reveal shades of Woody Allen, young Marcus, determined to save his mother despite being personally under siege at his new school, steals the show in as deft a characterisation of a bright but troubled boy as you're likely to read.
