Nick Hornby appeared on the British literary scene in 1992 with the publication of his imaginative and moving memoir Fever Pitch, an account of his years as a fanatic supporter of the Arsenal Football Club. Six years later Andrew Anthony called Hornby...

There are few betting certainties in this world. But some can still be found, if you search hard enough. Money placed on Tony Blair staying in Downing Street after election day might reasonably be expected to net a (small) profit in 12 days. With...

Byline: Bill Amundson About a Boy By Nick Hornby. Riverhead Books, 307 pages, $22.95. Nick Hornby's High Fidelity was a sensational debut, a contemporary coming-of-middle-age novel about manliness, music and sex that was hip and knowing without seeming trendy...

A Long Way Down, by Nick Hornby. Riverhead, 333 pages, $24.95. Suicide is one of those societal ills everyone feels comfortable looking down on: It's a cop-out, a death for wimps, the unnecessary result of insanity or self-absorption. Even the utterly unreligious will speak of...

In 2004, Franklin Foer, then a writer for The New Republic and Slate, published a book called How Soccer Explains the World. It was a good book, essentially nine or 10 travel pieces that explored not so much how the game explains the world, but...