Newly updated and expanded with the author preferred text. modern masterpiece from the multiple-award-winning master of innovative fiction, Neil Gaiman.First published in 2001, American Gods became an instant classic, lauded for its brilliant synthesis of ystery, satire, sex, horror, and poetic prose?(Washington Post) and as a modern phantasmagoria that istills the essence of America?(Seattle Post-Intelligencer). It is the story of Shadoweleased from prison just days after his wife and best friend are killed in an accidentho gets recruited to be bodyguard, driver, and errand boy for the enigmatic trickster, Mr. Wednesday. So begins Shadow dark and strange road trip, one that introduces him to a host of eccentric characters whose fates are mysteriously intertwined with his own. For, beneath the placid surface of everyday life, a storm is brewingn epic war for the very soul of Americand Shadow is standing squarely in its path.ointed, occasionally comic, often scary, consistently moving and provocative?American Gods is strewn with secrets and magical visions.?USA Todayriginal, engrossing, and endlessly inventive.?George R. R. Martin