New Releases by Nick Hornby

Engeland, de swingende jaren zestig. Het land is volledig in de ban van de televisiecomedy, met name van die waarin Sophie Straw de hoofdrol speelt. Sophie is een voormalig schoonheidskoningin uit de provincie die maar één ding in het leven wil: de mensen aan het lachen maken. Achter de schermen hebben de cast en crew de tijd van hun leven. Maar als het script te veel op de werkelijkheid begint te lijken en de grenzen tussen feit en fictie dreigen te vervagen, worden ze allen geconfronteerd met een lastige keuze.

En Rob Fleming té una botiga de discos antics tronada però cool on només ven la música que li agrada a ell. I només vinils, és clar, encara que el negoci, destinat a un públic de col·leccionistes de frivolitats molt seriosos, està sempre a punt de fer fallida. I ara, a més, la Laura l’ha deixat. És perquè en Rob s’entossudeix a perpetuar l’adolescència fins a la decrepitud? O bé –això creu ell– perquè la seva col·lecció de discos i la de la Laura són incompatibles? En Rob es refugia en la companyia d’en Barry i en Dick, els seus inefables còmplices a la botiga, i junts fan innombrables i molt masculines llistes dels top del pop: les cinc millors pel·lícules, en què sempre hi ha Reservoir Dogs, els cinc millors capítols de Cheers i les cinc millors cançons d’Elvis Costello... I també comença a sortir amb la Marie, una cantant americana. Sembla que finalment farà realitat un dels seus somnis, tenir una nòvia amb un contracte discogràfic, però llavors reapareix la Laura. I en Rob aviat començarà a fer-se preguntes de difícil resposta sobre la família, la monogàmia, l’amor, el desamor i la maduresa. Pot ser que a la fi descobreixi que també hi ha vida, i música, després de l’adolescència?

"How often do you begin reading a book that makes you—immediately, urgently, desperately—want to read more books?” (Booklist). Nick Hornby has managed to write just such a book in this hilarious, insightful, and infectious volume. Ten Years in the Tub chronicles Hornby's journey through a decade’s worth of books, as related in his wildly popular Believer column “Stuff I’ve Been Reading.” Ten Years in the Tub is a one-way ticket into the mind of one of the most beloved contemporary writers on his favorite pastime, but it's also a meditation on what Celine Dion can teach us about ourselves, a warning about how John Updike can ruin our sex lives, and a recommendation for the way Body Shop Vanilla Shower Gel can add excitement to our days. This "decade-long addiction for many... makes standing in line at the bank a blessed interval for snorting another page.” (the New York Times Book Review)

A brilliant novel about a woman determined to make a name for herself as a sitcom star in 1960's London from the bestselling author of Dickens and Prince, High Fidelity and About a Boy Funny Girl is a lively account of the adventures of the intrepid young Sophie Straw as she navigates her transformation from provincial ingénue to television starlet amid a constellation of delightful characters. Insightful and humorous, Funny Girl does what Nick Hornby does best: endears us to a cast of characters who are funny if flawed, and forces us to examine ourselves in the process.

Nick Hornbys grandioser neuer Roman: ein Ausflug ins Swinging London der Sixties Die hübsche Barbara entflieht der Provinz und zieht nach London, um berühmt zu werden. Sie bekommt tatsächlich die Hauptrolle in einer neuen Fernseh-Sitcom, die zu einer der erfolgreichsten TV-Shows Englands wird. Das Team wird ihre Familie – doch was passiert, wenn Ruhm und Glanz irgendwann verblassen?Anfang der 60er: Barbara nimmt die Wahl zur »Miss Blackpool« nicht an, als ihr aufgeht, dass sie dann ein weiteres Jahr in diesem verschlafenen Provinzstädtchen verbringen müsste. Stattdessen zieht sie nach London, ins Herz der neu entstehenden Popkultur, um Komikerin zu werden. Was zunächst aussichtslos erscheint, wird Wirklichkeit, und die Truppe rund um die beiden Drehbuchschreiber Tony und Bill, den Produzenten Dennis sowie Schauspielkollegen Clive ersetzt Barbara fortan die Familie. Alle sind von der Idee besessen, aus ihrer Sitcom einen Riesenerfolg zu machen, was ihnen trotz privater großer und kleiner Katastrophen auch gelingt. Doch was passiert, wenn Schönheit und Ruhm mit der Zeit verblassen?Nick Hornby nimmt den Leser mit ins brodelnde London der 60er-Jahre, mitten hinein in die Welt der am Hungertuch nagenden Gagschreiber, der überarbeiteten Regisseure, der egozentrischen Schauspieler und der vom großen Durchbruch träumenden Mädchen. Ein Buch über ganz große Auftritte, lebenslange Freundschaft und die große Liebe.

A wise, affecting novel from the beloved, award-winning author of Dickens and Prince, High Fidelity, and About A Boy. New York Times-bestselling author Nick Hornby mines the hearts and psyches of four lost souls who connect just when they've reached the end of the line. A Long Way Down is now a major motion picture from Magnolia Pictures starring Pierce Brosnan, Toni Collette, Aaron Paul, and Imogen Poots. Meet Martin, JJ, Jess, and Maureen. Four people who come together on New Year's Eve: a former TV talk show host, a musician, a teenage girl, and a mother. Three are British, one is American. They encounter one another on the roof of Topper's House, a London destination famous as the last stop for those ready to end their lives. In four distinct and riveting first-person voices, Nick Hornby tells a story of four individuals confronting the limits of choice, circumstance, and their own mortality. This is a tale of connections made and missed, punishing regrets, and the grace of second chances. Intense, hilarious, provocative, and moving, A Long Way Down is a novel about suicide that is, surprisingly, full of life.

Set in 1960's London, Funny Girl is a lively account of the adventures of the intrepid young Sophie Straw as she navigates her transformation from provincial ingenue to television starlet amid a constellation of delightful characters. Insightful and humorous, Nick Hornby's latest does what he does best: endears us to a cast of characters who are funny if flawed, and forces us to examine ourselves in the process.

“Read what you enjoy, not what bores you,” Nick Hornby tells us. That simple, liberating, and indispensable directive animates each installment of the celebrated critic and author’s monthly column in the Believer. In this delightful and never-musty tour of his reading life, Hornby tells us not just what to read, but how to read. Whether tackling a dismayingly bulky biography of Dickens while his children destroy something in the next room, or getting sucked into a serious assessment of Celine Dion during an intensely fought soccer match featuring his beloved Arsenal, or devouring an entire series of children’s books while on vacation, Hornby’s reviews are rich, witty, and occasionally madcap. These essays capture the joy and ire, the despair and exhilaration of the book-lover’s life, and will appeal equally to both monocle-wearing salonnieres and people, like him, who spend a lot of time thinking about Miley Cyrus’s next role.

In these two stories from bestselling author Nick Hornby revelations are at hand. In "Not a Star", Lynn has always thought her son, Mark, was a little, well, unremarkable. Until the day a neighbor drops off a porn video at her house, with a note telling her to watch it. Turns out, Mark is rather remarkable in one specific area of his life (and anatomy). Lynn and her husband, Dave, don’t quite know what to think. The revelation of their son’s talent ripples through Lynn’s life as she alternately encounters humor, horror, and unexpected emotional reactions. What do you do in the face of impending doom? In "Otherwise, Pandemonium," you lose your virginity with the hottest girl in the Little Berkeley Big Band… Here, the world is a different place; the future is uncertain; the choices one makes are the only thing standing between a semblance of order or utter chaos. And the TV’s been acting funny. This is a story that makes you think and feel, and reminds us of the fleeting nature of time.

From the New York Times bestselling author—the shooting script to his award-winning film, with an original Introduction and vivid stills from the movie. Jenny is a 16-year-old girl stifled by the tedium of adolescence; she can’t wait for her sophisticated adult life to begin. One rainy day her suburban existence is upended by the arrival of David, a much older suitor who introduces her to a glittering new world of concerts, art, smoky bars, urban nightlife, and his glamorous friends, replacing her traditional education with his own version. It could be her awakening—or her undoing. This edition of Hornby’s adapted screenplay, which includes stills from the film, is a perfect accompaniment to the highly anticipated movie, which stars Carey Mulligan as Jenny, Peter Sarsgaard, Emma Thompson, Dominic Cooper, and Alfred Molina. It is a must-have for fans of Hornby’s novels, featuring his signature pitch-perfect dialogue, mordant wit, and the resonant humanity of his writing. Watch a Video

Rockstar Tucker Crowe, Jahrgang 1953, der in den 80er-Jahren Triumphe feierte, lebt heute völlig zurückgezogen in einer amerikanischen Kleinstadt und kann kaum glauben, was er im Internet alles über sich lesen muss. Doch Annies Kritik seines neuen Albums lässt ihn aufhorchen, er nimmt Kontakt mit Annie auf...

According to her own moral calculations, Katie Carr has earned her affair. She's a doctor, and doctors are decent people, and her husband David is the "Angriest Man" in Holloway. When David suddenly becomes good, Katie's sums no longer add up, and she is forced to ask herself some questions.

In his monthly accounts of what he's read - along with what he may one day read - Nick Hornby explores everything from the classic to the graphic novel, as well as poems, plays, sports books and other kinds of non-fiction.

Fourteen months of Hornby's warm, incisive, and hilarious chronicles of the books he buys and the books he reads.In this latest collection of essays following 'The Polysyllabic Spree,' critic and author Nick Hornby continues the feverish survey of his swollen bookshelves, offering a funny, intelligent, and unblinkered account of the stuff he's been reading. Ranging from the middlebrow to the highbrow (with unrepenting dips into the lowbrow), Hornby's dispatches from his nightstand table serve as useful guides to contemporary letters, with revelations on contemporary culture, the intellectual scene, and English football, in equal measure.

" Un roman hilarant, voilà l'événement ! [...] II y a de quoi faire dans cette histoire destinée aux individus coincés et mal coincés entre la trentaine et tout ce qui suit. Rob, bientôt trente-six ans, est mal en point : "Qu'ai-je fait de ma vie ?" se demande ce sempiternel adolescent qui craint de vieillir (même bien), au lendemain d'une rupture, en contemplant les bacs de son magasin de disques pop paumé dans une ruelle de Londres. [...] Pour notre plus grand plaisir, Rob, qui se demande in fine s'il ne serait pas un nul, décide d'entamer la falaise. II récapitule ses amours, depuis le premier, à douze ans, qui dura trois fois deux heures, jusqu'au dernier, une nuit correcte avec une chanteuse américaine, et dresse un inventaire hilarant de ses états d'âme. [...] Tous ceux qui considèrent comme vertige nécessaire le fait de savoir à un moment donné faire durer une relation monogame, se délecteront à la lecture de ce roman post-mélancolique qui célèbre les vertus du rire. " Catherine Argand, Lire.

“All I have to say about these songs is that I love them, and want to sing along to them, and force other people to listen to them, and get cross when these other people don’t like them as much as I do.” —Nick Hornby, from Songbook A wise and hilarious collection from the bestselling author of Dickens and Prince, Just Like You, Funny Girl and About a Boy. Songs, songwriters, and why and how they get under our skin… Songbook is Nick Hornby’s labor of love. A shrewd, funny, and completely unique collection of musings on pop music, why it’s good, what makes us listen and love it, and the ways in which it attaches itself to our lives—all with the beat of a perfectly mastered mix tape.

Forfatteren Nick Hornby reflekterer over 31 sange som har haft en betydning for ham eller bare har sat sig fast.

A wise and hilarious novel morality and what it means to be a "goof person" from the bestselling author of Dickens and Prince, Just Like you, Funny Girl and High Fidelity. A brutally truthful, compassionate novel about the heart, mind, and soul of a woman who, confronted by her husband’s sudden and extreme spiritual conversion, is forced to learn “how to be good”—whatever that means, and for better or worse… Katie Carr is a good person…sort of. For years her husband’s been selfish, sarcastic, and underemployed. But now David’s changed. He’s become a good person, too—really good. He’s found a spiritual leader. He has become kind, soft-spoken, and earnest. Katie isn’t sure if this is deeply felt conversion, a brain tumor—or David’s most brilliantly vicious manipulation yet. Because she’s finding it more and more difficult to live with David—and with herself.

Katie Carr es madre de dos hijos, ejerce la medicina y le gustaría estar convencida de que es buena persona porque ayuda a los demás. En un viaje a Leeds, tiene una aventura con un hombre más joven que ella y a partir de ese momento todo su mundo se transforma en un mar de dudas. Y es que su cínico marido toma la repentina decisión de cambiar radicalmente y, tras una terapia, se transforma en un dechado de virtudes. Pero su enloquecida bondad no tiene freno y Katie se ve obligada a tomar el papel de cínica... Una mirada maliciosamente irónica sobre la vida familiar, la crisis de la mediana edad, la buena conciencia liberal y la obsesión por ser buenas personas, escrita por uno de los más agudos y divertidos cronistas de la Inglaterra contemporánea.

Katie, la quarantaine, est quelqu'un de Bien : elle est médecin, elle élève ses deux enfants, elle est fidèle à David, son mari depuis quinze ans jusqu'au moment où elle se retrouve au lit avec un certain Stephen, et songe alors à demander le divorce. Mais David, personnage grincheux, désagréable, auteur d'un feuilleton hebdomadaire où il se clame l'" homme le plus en colère " de leur petite ville, tombe soudainement sous l'influence du gourou D.J. GoodNews - et devient aussitôt quelqu'un de Bon. Transformé en bénévole hyperactif, il mène des actions parfois hilarantes, toujours désastreuses. Déstabilisée par ces excès de bonté, Katie ne sait plus où elle en est : son mariage, sa vie professionnelle, tout son avenir est remis en question... Nick Hornby, avec son talent remarquable pour trouver le comique dans la détresse des quadras contemporains, brosse ici un portrait à la fois drôle et perspicace d'un mariage moderne et de la difficulté d'être... Bon.

"I've always loved Nick Hornby, and the way he writes characters and the way he thinks. It's funny and heartbreaking all at the same time."—Zoë Kravitz From the bestselling author of Funny Girl, About a Boy, A Long Way Down and Dickens and Prince, a wise and hilarious novel about love, heartbreak, and rock and roll. Rob is a pop music junkie who runs his own semi-failing record store. His girlfriend, Laura, has just left him for the guy upstairs, and Rob is both miserable and relieved. After all, could he have spent his life with someone who has a bad record collection? Rob seeks refuge in the company of the offbeat clerks at his store, who endlessly review their top five films; top five Elvis Costello songs; top five episodes of Cheers. Rob tries dating a singer, but maybe it’s just that he’s always wanted to sleep with someone who has a record contract. Then he sees Laura again. And Rob begins to think that life with kids, marriage, barbecues, and soft rock CDs might not be so bad.

Roman personnel. Roman psychologique.

Ejeren af pladeforretningen Championship Vinyl i Holloway, London, den 35-årige Robert, er blevet droppet af sin kæreste og prøver nu at finde sig selv i galgenhumoristisk desperation og maskulin afmagt

A wise, hilarious novel from the beloved, award-winning author of Dickens and Prince, Funny Girl and High Fidelity Will Freeman may have discovered the key to dating success: If the simple fact that they were single mothers meant that gorgeous women – women who would not ordinarily look twice a Will – might not only be willing, but enthusiastic about dating him, then he was really onto something. Single mothers – bright, attractive, available women – thousands of them, were all over London. He just had to find them. SPAT: Single Parents – Alone Together. It was a brilliant plan. And Will wasn’t going to let the fact that he didn’t have a child himself hold him back. A fictional two-year-old named Ned wouldn’t be the first thing he’d invented. And it seems to go quite well at first, until he meets an actual twelve-year-old named Marcus, who is more than Will bargained for…

Pour un petit Londonien de douze ans, que sa mère, baba cool divorcée et dépressive, affuble de grosses lunettes et de mocassins ringards, et à qui elle inculque des théories aussi psychorigides qu'improbables à propos de l'existence, la vie n'est pas facile. Pour un célibataire londonien de trente-six ans, riche, oisif, mais qui a de plus en plus de mal à dénicher des compagnes bien roulées, indulgentes et disponibles, la vie n'est pas facile non plus. Quand le gamin et le célibataire se rencontrent dans un club pour femmes seules où le célibataire s'est indûment introduit, les choses deviennent de plus en plus compliquées. Nick Hornby en dit beaucoup, en riant, sur la triste condition des mâles célibataires de tous âges, en notre triste fin de siècle. Christophe Mercier " Un mets rassasiant et tout à fait gouteux Ce livre est un fameux potage, et si vous avez aimé les deux précédents vous en reprendrez volontiers. " (The Guardian.) " L'acuité du regard de Hornby et son sens inné de la comédie loufoque rendent notre voyage drôle, divertissant et parfois émouvant. " (New York Times.) " Au contraire de son compatriote Martin Amis, qui est souvent hilarant mais essentiellement sulfureux, Hornby est un écrivain qui ose être tout à la fois spirituel, intelligent et d'une grande structure émotionnelle " (New York Times Book Review.) " Un regard étonnamment lucide et élégamment transfiguré sur la société anglaise, sans égal parmi les écrivains de la dernière génération. " (L'Evénement du jeudi.) " Il est rare qu'un livre aussi hilarant soit également si percutant sur le sexe, la virilité, la mémoire et la musique. " (The New Yorker).

Da "Tribunefeber" kom ut i England i 1992, ble boken umiddelbart en stor suksess. Nich Hornby skildrer det nærmest absurde følelsesmessige engasjementet knyttet til fotballsporten og favorittlaget Arsenal, et engasjement som domineres av gnagende uro og mismot, men som også innebærer stunder av jublende glede. Samtidig skriver han om barndommen, om det å vokse til, om maskulinitet, klasseskiller, sex og familieliv, og om vanskelighetene voksentilværelsen bringer med seg. Alt beskrevet med humor og ironi. Boken er nå også filmatisert med Colin Firth i hovedrollen. Hornbys første roman "High Fidelity - en roman om hjerte/smerte" kom på norsk i 1996.