Paperback, 658 pages
English language
Published 2010 by Headline Review.
Days before his release from prison, Shadow's wife, Laura, dies in a mysterious car crash. Numbly, he makes his way back home. On the plane, he encounters the enigmatic Mr Wednesday, who claims to be a refugee from a distant war, a former god and the king of America.
Together they embark on a profoundly strange journey across the heart of the USA, whilst all around them a storm of preternatural and epic proportions threatens to break.
Scary, gripping and deeply unsettling, American Gods takes a long, hard look into the soul of America. You'll be surprised by what - and who - it finds there... --back cover
I read the 10th anniversary edition, which is longer than the original. It seemed a little slow at times and I think the original edition might be better.
I read this both in print and as audiobook. The audiobook version is narrated by Neil Gaiman himself, so it is, of course, amazing.
While I usually read for character development, that isn't a big part of this book--the characters are fun, but you don't come out of it feeling like you know them that well, or, at least, I didn't. Instead, this book is about story and about exploring "what ifs."
It's one of Gaiman's best, which means something.
