Slam [Paperback]

*Starred Review* For Hornby, author of About a Boy (1988) and High Fidelity (1995), the move from adult to young-adult fiction represents more of a natural progression than a change in course. So it should come as no surprise that he has written an accomplished teen novel featuring a character whose voice hits its groove at the downbeat and sustains it through the final chord. Sam is a disarmingly ordinary 15-year-old kid who loves to skate (that's skateboarding, to you and me). But then he is blindsided: his girlfriend gets pregnant, and he lands in the middle of his mum's nightmare (she had Sam when she was 16). This may sound like an old-fashioned realistic YA problem novel, but it's a whole lot more. Sam, you see, has a sort-of-imaginary friend: the world's greatest skater, Tony Hawk, whose poster Sam talks to when he has problems. And the poster talks back, maybe, or maybe Sam is just reciting quotes from Tony's autobiography. And is it really Tony who is "whizzing" Sam into the future for glimpses of what is to come? With or without Tony's help, Sam gives us the facts about his very eventful couple of years, but as he reminds us, "there comes a point where the facts don't matter anymore . . . because you don't know what anything felt like." Which is where Hornby comes in. We know exactly how Sam feels—even when he feels differently from the beginning of a sentence to the end—and it feels just right: a vertiginous mix of anger, confusion, insight, humor, and love. Ott, Bill --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Touching, very funny Guardian Hornby gets his point across with the subtlety and skill of a born novelist who always deserves to be read Independent Warm, witty and wise Arena Hornby's writing is hilarious Cosmopolitan Hornby takes the raw ironies of life and gently rubs away at them to reveal gems of bittersweet truth Observer A moving read for anyone Elle Truthful and funny Sunday Times

'There was this time when everything seemed to have come together. And so obviously it was time to go and screw it all up'. Sam is sixteen and a skater. Just so there are no terrible misunderstandings: skating = skateboarding. There's no ice. Life is ticking along nicely for Sam: his mum's got rid of her rubbish boyfriend, he's thinking about college and he's met someone. Alicia. Then a little accident happens. One with big consequences for someone just finding his way in life. Sam can't run (let alone skate) away from this one. He's a boy facing a man's problems and the question is - has he got what it takes to confront them?

Nick Hornby was educated at Cambridge and began his career as an English teacher before going on to write the internationally bestselling novels High Fidelity, About a Boy, How to be Good and A Long Way Down. He has written three works of non-fiction: the hugely popular Fever Pitch, 31 Songs and The Complete Polysyllabic Spree. Fever Pitch, High Fidelity and About a Boy have all been made into successful films. Nick has won many awards and is a huge pop-music fan. He lives and works in Highbury, north London. Slam is his first teenage fiction novel.

Narrator Nicholas Hoult is best known as Marcus in the film version of author Nick HornbyÕs ABOUT A BOY. Now he narrates HornbyÕs latest novel while still a teenager himself--not surprisingly, he nails the tone of a Londoner whose life goes unexpectedly off the rails. Sam is obsessed with skateboarding and Tony Hawk, the worldÕs greatest skater. Life is going well--his teachers are recommending art college, and he has a beautiful girlfriend. In skating, a slam is a hard fall; in SamÕs life, the slam is unexpected fatherhood. Sam becomes a father at 16--the same age his mother had him. Hoult makes Sam an entirely believable teenager--his dialogue is slouchy, like a teenagerÕs, and his light tone maintains HornbyÕs humor. A.B. 2008 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.