Anansi Boys
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4.4 • 576 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
In this #1 New York Times bestseller, Neil Gaiman returns to the territory of his masterpiece, American Gods to once again probe the dark recesses of the soul.
God is dead. Meet the kids.
Fat Charlie Nancy’s normal life ended the moment his father dropped dead on a Florida karaoke stage. Charlie didn’t know his dad was a god. And he never knew he had a brother. Now brother Spider is on his doorstep—about to make Fat Charlie’s life more interesting . . . and a lot more dangerous.
“Thrilling, spooky, and wondrous.” —Denver Post
“Awesomely inventive.… When you take the free-fall plunge into a Neil Gaiman book, anything can happen and anything invariably does.” —Entertainment Weekly
“Delightful, funny and affecting.... A tall tale to end all tall tales.” —Washington Post Book World
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Imagine the surprise of learning your late father was the superpowerful West African trickster Anansi—and that you have a brother who, unlike you, inherited all of your dad’s godly powers. That’s exactly what happens to hapless Londoner Charlie Nancy at the start of Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys. Soon Charlie and his charming, dastardly brother, Spider, leap into a continent-hopping, time-traveling journey that’s hilarious, imaginative, and thrilling. We love the way Gaiman brings various characters from the Anansi creation myth into a rollicking modern story.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
If readers found the Sandman series creator's last novel, American Gods, hard to classify, they will be equally nonplussed and equally entertained by this brilliant mingling of the mundane and the fantastic. "Fat Charlie" Nancy leads a life of comfortable workaholism in London, with a stressful agenting job he doesn't much like, and a pleasant fianc e, Rosie. When Charlie learns of the death of his estranged father in Florida, he attends the funeral and learns two facts that turn his well-ordered existence upside-down: that his father was a human form of Anansi, the African trickster god, and that he has a brother, Spider, who has inherited some of their father's godlike abilities. Spider comes to visit Charlie and gets him fired from his job, steals his fianc e, and is instrumental in having him arrested for embezzlement and suspected of murder. When Charlie resorts to magic to get rid of Spider, who's selfish and unthinking rather than evil, things begin to go very badly for just about everyone. Other characters including Charlie's malevolent boss, Grahame Coats ("an albino ferret in an expensive suit"), witches, police and some of the folk from American Gods are expertly woven into Gaiman's rich myth, which plays off the African folk tales in which Anansi stars. But it's Gaiman's focus on Charlie and Charlie's attempts to return to normalcy that make the story so winning along with gleeful, hurtling prose.
Customer Reviews
See AllFun and amusing
Nice read. Characters were enjoyable even when unliked.
The kind of book that will make you miss your subway stop
I loved American Gods and wasn't expecting to like Anansi Boys as much, but I think I liked it even more. Like usual, I felt swept up into this world that Neil Gaiman is so great at creating and I wished the book didn't have to end!
I loved this so much
Neil Gaiman is masterful at storytelling, and Anansi Boys showcases this perfectly. He has the ability to paint vivid scenes with imagery, sounds, smells, and thus allows you to be completely immersed in the world he creates. All his books are incredible in my opinion, but this one resonated with me on a deeply personal level that I cannot describe. It is easily my favorite book of his, and the writing is nothing short of exceptional.