Is it possible to share your life with someone whose record collection is incompatible with your own? Can people have terrible taste and still be worth knowing? Do songs about broken hearts and misery and loneliness mess up your life if consumed in excess? For Rob Fleming, thirty-five years old, a pop addict and owner of a failing record shop, these are the sort of questions that need an answer, and soon. His girlfriend has just left him. Can he really go on living in a poky flat surrounded by vinyl and CDs or should he get a real home, a real family and a real job? Perhaps most difficult of all, will he ever be able to stop thinking about life in terms of the All Time Top Five bands, books, films, songs – even now that he’s been dumped again, the top five break-ups? Memorable, sad and very, very funny, this is the truest book you will ever read about the things that really matter.

一个是没有童年、“全世界最老的”十二岁男孩，一个是“拒绝成长”、最不愿成熟的三十六岁男人，背景就是我们这个纷繁嘈杂的后工业时代。当今英伦最走红作家尼克·霍恩比的最走红喜剧小说，休·格兰特主演的电影版号称“最重磅的英国喜剧片”。 有性，有摇滚，有谎言，更有真情欢笑；够酷，够前卫，够无厘头，更直透你心。在幽默和伤感、欢笑和泪水中教会你什么是成长和成熟。

凯特是个医生，是个好人，膝下有一儿一女，过着幸福的中产生活。只不过，结婚经年，日子有些寡淡无味，尤其是丈夫戴维，因为写着一个号称是“霍洛威最愤怒的男人”的报纸专栏，似乎性格越发乖张、尖刻、自私了。毫无征兆，甚至也出乎凯特本人的意料，在外地一个停车场给戴维打电话，例行公事地问候家人时，她脱口而出，想要离婚。生活的天平此倾斜，凯特陷入无穷尽的困扰之中，丈夫戴维也为此紧张万分。可是，充满戏剧性的是，戴维在寻求心理帮助的过程中，偶遇一位叫做“好消息”的灵魂大师，他竟然摇身变为“早请示、晚汇报”的标准新好男人，事情开始复杂了……

本书是英国畅销书作家尼克·霍恩比的力作，小说描述了一个惧怕婚姻和责任的男人和一个少年老成的男孩共同成长的故事。

For disgraced TV presenter Martin Sharp the answer's pretty simple：he has，in his own words，‘issed his life away’.And on New Year's Eve he's going to end it all …But not，as it happens，alone.Because first single-mum Maureen，then eighteen-year-old Jess and lastly American rock-god JJ turn up and crash Martin's private party.They've stolen his idea-but brought their own reasons. Yet it's hard to jump when you've got an audience queuing impatiently behind you.A few heated words and some slices of cold pizza later and these four strangers are suddenly allies.But is their unlikely friendship a good enough reason to carry on living？ ‘Hornby pins down the age in which we live with precision and comic brilliance’.

《砰!》讲述了：正当Sam的前途一片光明时，女友Alicia说出了惊天动地的秘密：她怀孕了。但在她说出这句话时，两人已经为这段感情画上了休止符。Sam根本不想做个未成年的爸爸。此时，Sam只能向一个人寻求帮助——他的偶像，史上最强滑板选手Tony Hawk。Sam相信，从Tony Hawk的自传里可以找到自己人生问题的解决　方法。不过这次事情闹大了，连Tony Hawk也不灵了。在这个充满智慧闪光的故事中，未成年男孩不愿意过早成为父亲。至于事情将如何发展，糟糕的事情会不会发生？两个年轻人的未来之路该怎么走？