Summary  “About a boy” – Nick Hornby

Chapter 1: Marcus is interested in the reasons why his mother has broken up with her boyfriend Roger and so they have a conversation about that.
After that they watch TV. Marcus worries about her mental state and only chooses trouble-free films and they eat pizza and have quite a normal evening.

Chapter 2: Will spends an afternoon alone in his flat to define how cool he is. Later that day he visits John and Christine, both are friends of him. A few weeks ago they got a new baby called Imogen, so that Barney, their two-year old 1st child has a sister. They want Will to be her godfather but Will does not really like children and families.

John and Christine also know about Jessica, Will’s ex-girlfriend, that’s the reason why Will starts to think about her.

Chapter 3: Marcus can’t sleep at night after the 1st day at the new school because he is afraid of it. Marcus is worried and he knows that the other kids bully him because they know he does not want to defend himself.
But in the first lesson after the break they read a book and then they discuss the question how to get to know whether somebody is mad. One girl makes a bad joke about Marcus’ singing in class and the young teacher does not helps him.

Chapter 4: Will meets the young mother Angie in a cafe. He wants to have a date with her and so he decides to like her children. They start a relationship but later on she splits up because she thinks Will doesn’t want to waste his time with a single mother.

Chapter 5: Marcus finds his mother crying in the morning and notices this isn't a good sign. In school he meets the nice guys Nicky and Mark. Later they break the friendship off because they are scared and don’t want to be the victims of the older students. He hates school because he is different. He doesn’t feel comfortable there.

Chapter 6: Will invents his imaginary son Ned so that he can go to SPAT because he wants to meet more women like Angie. In the single parent group he meets Suzie who really impresses him.

Chapter 7: He has spent the weekend at his father’s home in Cambridge. Marcus goes shopping. But at the shop are some bad guys from school who follow Marcus and put some sweets and other thigs in his pocket so Mr. Patel is forced to think Marcus wants to steel them. But Mr. Patel has seen the boys and so Marcus can go home without punishment. At home Fiona tells Marcus that Suzie has invite him to the yearly SPAT picnic but Marcus does not really want o go there because he does not like SPAT.

Chapter 8: Will, Suzie, her daughter Megan and Marcus go together to Regent’s Park for the picnic. Will does not know Marcus because Suzie has not told him anything about him.  But Will thinks that Marcus is really weird. Will is not nice to him, his behaviour towards Marcus is quite unfriendly but Marcus does not act better than Will. Later that day Will forgets Ned, his son, in conversations with Suzie. Marcus wants to feed a duck, but the piece of bread is too big and so he kills the duck.

Chapter 9: Marcus is shocked about the dead duck. A parkkeeper appears to punish Marcus for his "murder”, but Will defends Marcus in front of him. The parkkeeper goes away. Then they go to take Marcus home. When they arrive at the flat they find Fiona lying on the sofa, looking really ill. She had made a suicide attempt. Will calls the ambulance. Suzie is really angry about Fiona because she has a child, but she is also afraid that Fiona might die.

Chapter 10: Will goes to the hospital with Suzie and Marcus. He tries to make Marcus happy and is friendly to him. Will invents Paula, his ex-wife because Suzie wants to know her name.

Chapter 11: Fiona has written a farewell letter and Marcus finds it when he gets home from the hospital. Later that day Suzie comes to bring Fiona home from the hospital. Marcus feels really strange. Marcus is afraid of his mother’s state and so he decides not to trouble her. So they spend a normal evening with no trouble.

Chapter 12: Suzie calls Will and asks him if he could take a little bit care of Marcus because she thinks he is lonely. Will agrees. Will buys a magazine to find out what he can do with Marcus when he takes him out. In the afternoon Marcus calls Will. He uses the chance to invite Marcus to do something with him, but Marcus only wants to go if he can take his mum with them. Will agrees again. Later that day Will visits the Mothercare shop to buy a car seat to convince Marcus and Fiona that Ned exists.

Chapter 13: Marcus wants Will to go out together with his mother. His intension is to extend his family. They go to Planet Hollywood. He has heard that sometimes you can meet celebrities there. But they have to wait a really long time and so Fiona and Will decide to go to another restaurant. At the restaurant which Will has recommended Fiona and Marcus tell Will that they are vegetarians. Will cannot understand this.

Chapter 14: Will visits Marcus and Fiona for the first time and he understands that Fiona isn’t his type of woman.
When he hears how Marcus and Fiona sing the song “Killing me softly” at the piano with closed eyes, he feels annoyed. Later that week Marcus visits Will’s flat for the first time because he doesn’t want the contact between him and his mother to break up. They spend the whole afternoon together and Marcus realizes that Will doesn’t have a child in real.

Chapter 15: Marcus visits Will again. Will doesn’t know why but they spend this afternoon together again. They watch TV and talk about a lot of things like music and television.

Chapter 16: Step by step Will likes Marcus’ visits. One day the guys in the school bullied Marcus, so he had to run away and he came to Will’s flat to rescue himself. Will understands that Marcus doesn’t have an easy life, he has no friends and no luck. That’s why they go out and Will bought him some new, cool, expensive shoes. Marcus didn’t want them at first, but Will could convince him. The next day, Marcus visited Will again but without his new shoes, the guys in the school had stolen them. 

Chapter 26: Marcus and Will go to the mall and Will tells him about Rachel. But Marcus doesn't understand why Will told her, that he is his son. Futhermore Will had to admit, that he has been in love with Rachel since New Year's Eve. Marcus is not sure, if he wants Elli as his girlfriend. Will persuades Marcus to pretend to be his son (they were invited on Saturday to lunch with Rachel). Will thinks, that he loves Marcus at the moment when Marcus remained in Ali’s room but after 10 minutes Marcus left Ali’s room.

Chapter 27: Marcus was leading a fierce discussion with Ali and Ali threatened Marcus to kill him. Ali wants Marcus and Will to go away, because he wants his mother only for himself. Rachel apologized for Ali’s bad behaviour, she said it was because of her ex-boyfriend. She also said that her ex-boyfriend wasn't good with Ali. Marcus told Rachel, that Will likes her. At school Elli makes an impression on Marcus, because she still defended him against Lee Harvey.

Chapter 28: Will thinks that it is not good that Marcus is defended by Elli. Will is going to eat with Rachel and he told her, that Marcus isn't his son. Will told Rachel about the relationship with Marcus. Will says that he didn't say that Marcus was his son. Rachel blames herself. Rachel says the fact, that he has a son makes him interesting. Will learned to take over responsibility.

Chapter 29: Some weeks passed by and Marcus felt like he was changing in his body and in his head. But then his mother started crying again. He asked Will to help him, but Will didn't feel able to help him in any way in such things.
At school Ellie is sad because of Kurt Cobain’s suicide attempt. Marcus cannot understand Ellie’s feelings and behaviour, because Ellie didn't even know this person and in his mind Kurt Cobain isn't a real person. But his mother is a real person with real problems and these problems are so much more important.

Chapter 30: Will showed feelings of remorse and a bad mood because he didn't wanted to help Marcus although there were so many arguments to get involved, to look after Marcus and to help him. He thought about his relationship with Rachel. A little later they finally had sex for the first time.
Rachel explained to Will why Fiona is so depressed and she wanted to talk with her about this problem.

Chapter 31: Marcus' dad broke his collarbone. Fiona wanted Marcus to visit his dad but Marcus didn't have any compassion for his dad. He just didn't want to go and he was angry with him because before he had this accident he never cared about Marcus. He told Ellie about this and she promised to come with him. The day they wanted to leave, Kurt Cobain killed himself. Marcus tried to hide this news from Ellie, but she knew it already.   

Chapter 32: Will wants to meet Fiona and Rachel, though he is disappointed when he hears that Rachel won´t be there. Fiona needs somebody to talk to and she´s happy she can tell Will about her problems. He, however, doesn´t feel like it and thinks he’s not the right person for that. When they arrive at Fiona’s home, they are told that Marcus and Ellie are at a police station.

Chapter 33: Marcus and Ellie are heading towards Marcus´s father, while they are talking about Ellie´s life and past. When they reach Royston Station, Ellie hops on a still driving train; Marcus follows her. From there, she destroys shop windows by throwing her shoes because she doesn´t like how other people are earning money with the death of Kurt Cobain. The police stop them red-handed and take them to a police station. 

Chapter : Rachel, Fiona, Will and Katrina (who is Ellie’s mother) fetch Ellie and Marcus from the police station. They talk about Ellie and their behaviour and Katrina thinks she has gone out of control. Ruth, owner of a record shop, overhears the conversation and explains to them that Ellie is a fan of Kurt Cobain and that she feels the same as Ellie. 

Chapter 35: Marcus drove it to his father, and he realized that his father doesn’t play a role in his life and he had missed his chance.
At home, Lindsey went to sleep and Marcus stays with his father in the kitchen. He tries to explain to his son why he has seen since the accident that Marcus needs him as a father.
Marcus thinks he does not need a father, because he has a lot of people around him and was confident and he also knew how he had to deal with people and their problems.
The next morning Marcus drove back home.

Chapter 36: Most Saturdays Will has done something together with Marcus and Ali, first of all in order to get a chance in Rachel's life and to have a good chance with her.
Marcus became even more adult than Al. He dressed himself better, and went to the barber and had not bothered to sing out loud and even improved his friendship with Elli and Zoe. He had learned to behave like a teenager and Will missed this old Marcus.
Fiona and Rachel understand each other better now, they meet regularly and even Will toyed with the idea to marry Rachel. Ali and Marcus don't like the idea, because they believed that this would not hold long.
Fiona feared losing Marcus because Marcus was doing just what he wanted. It seemed to work well.