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American Gods

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Overview

Shadow is a man with a past. But now he wants nothing more than to live a quiet life with his wife and stay out of trouble. Until he learns that she's been killed in a terrible accident.

Flying home for the funeral, as a violent storm rocks the plane, a strange man in the seat next to him introduces himself. The man calls himself Mr. Wednesday, and he knows more about Shadow than is possible.

He warns Shadow that a far bigger storm is coming. And from that moment on, nothing will ever he the same.

Editorial Reviews

Editorial Reviews for this product are not available at this time.

Author Information

Bio of Neil Gaiman

Bestselling author Neil Gaiman has long been one of the top writers in modern comics, and has also penned many books for readers of all ages, including American Gods, Anansi Boys, Coraline, and M Is for Magic. He is listed in the Dictionary of Literary Biography as one of the top ten living post-modern writers, and is a prolific creator of works of prose, poetry, film, journalism, comics, song lyrics, and drama. He has written multiple New York Times bestselling books, and is a Hugo, Nebula, Bram Stoker, SFX, and Locus Award winner. He has also worked in support of First Amendment rights, and was awarded the Defender of Liberty Award in August 1997 by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund for his efforts. Born and raised in England, Neil now lives near Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has somehow reached his forties and tends to always need a haircut.

Customer Reviews

  • 4 stars out of 5The best Neil Gaiman book I've read

    Posted June 08, 2009 by MB, Milwaukee, WI

    I like this the best of all his books. He plays stereotypes well and adds a British twist.

  • 5 stars out of 5America is a bad land for gods.

    Posted June 21, 2009 by Sean D, Osan

    Neil Gaiman tends to wring stories that dance the line between the world you and I live in and an amazing "other world". In this story he does this in excellent fashion, the main character is excellent. Every part of the book fits extremely well and serves to enhance the rest of the story. Every Character you come across is unique and intriguing.

    All and all a very imaginative book.

Additional Info

Imprint

HarperCollins

Filesize

2.76 MB

Number of Pages

480

eBook ISBN

9780061188534

Excerpt from: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Chapter One

The boundaries of our country, sir Why sir, on the north we arebounded by the Aurora Borealis, on the east we are bounded by therising sun, on the south we are bounded by the procession of theEquinoxes, and on the west by the Day of Judgment.

-- The American Joe Miller's Jest Book

Shadow had done three years in prison. He was big enough and looked don't-fuck-with-me enough that his biggest problem was killing time. So he kept himself in shape, and taught himself coin tricks, and thought a lot about how much he loved his wife.

The best thing ' in Shadow's opinion, perhaps the only good thing ' about being in prison was a feeling of relief. The feeling that he'd plunged as low as he could plunge and he'd hit bottom. He didn't worry that the man was going to get hurt, because the man had got him. He was no longer scared of what tomorrow might bring, because yesterday had brought it.

It did not matter, Shadow decided, if you had done what you had been convicted of or not. In his experience everyone he met in prison was aggrieved about something: there was always something the authorities had got wrong, something they said you did when you didn't ' or you didn't do quite like they said you did. What was important was that they had gotten you.

He had noticed it in the first few days, when everything, from the slang to the bad food, was new. Despite the misery and the titter skin-crawling horror of incarceration, he was breathing relief.

Shadow tried not to talk too much. Somewhere around the middle of year two he mentioned his theory to Low Key Lyesmith, his cellmate.

Low Key, who was a grifter from Minnesota, smiled his scarred smile. "Yeah," he said. "That's true. It's even better when you've been sentenced to death. That's when you remember the jokes about the guys who kicked their boots off as the noose flipped around their necks, because their friends always told them they'd die with their boots on."