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One of fiction’s most audaciously
original talents, Neil Gaiman now gives us a mythology
for a modern age—complete with dark prophecy, family
dysfunction, mystical deceptions, and killer birds. Not to
mention a lime.
Anansi Boys
God is dead. Meet the kids.
When Fat Charlie’s dad named something,
it stuck. Like calling Fat Charlie “Fat Charlie.”
Even now, twenty years later, Charlie Nancy can’t shake
that name, one of the many embarrassing “gifts”
his father bestowed—before he dropped dead on a karaoke
stage and ruined Fat Charlie’s life.
Mr. Nancy left Fat Charlie things. Things
like the tall, good-looking stranger who appears on Charlie’s
doorstep, who appears to be the brother he never knew. A brother
as different from Charlie as night is from day, a brother
who’s going to show Charlie how to lighten up and have
a little fun ... just like Dear Old Dad. And all of a sudden,
life starts getting very interesting for Fat Charlie.
Because, you see, Charlie’s dad wasn’t
just any dad. He was Anansi, a trickster god, the spider-god.
Anansi is the spirit of rebellion, able to overturn the social
order, create wealth out of thin air, and baffle the devil.
Some said he could cheat even Death himself.
Returning to the territory he so brilliantly
explored in his masterful New York Times bestseller,
American Gods, the incomparable Neil Gaiman offers
up a work of dazzling ingenuity, a kaleidoscopic journey deep
into myth that is at once startling, terrifying, exhilarating,
and fiercely funny—a true wonder of a novel that confirms
Stephen King’s glowing assessment of the author as “a
treasure-house of story, and we are lucky to have him.”
A professional writer for more than twenty
years, Neil Gaiman has been one of the top
writers in modern comics, and is now a bestselling novelist.
His work has appeared in translation in more than nineteen
countries, and nearly all of his novels, graphic and otherwise,
have been optioned for films. He is listed in the Dictionary
of Literary Biography as one of the top ten living post-modern
writers.
Gaiman was the creator/writer of the monthly
cult DC Comics series, “Sandman,” which won Neil
nine Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, including the award
for best writer four times, and three Harvey Awards. “Sandman
#19” took the 1991 World Fantasy Award for best short
story, making it the first comic ever to be awarded a literary
award.
His six-part fantastical TV series for
the BBC, “Neverwhere,” was broadcast in 1996.
His novel, also called “Neverwhere,” and set in
the same strange underground world as the television series,
was released in 1997; it appeared on a number of bestseller
lists, including those of the Los Angeles Times, the
San Francisco Chronicle, and Locus.
Stardust, an illustrated prose
novel in four parts, began to appear from DC Comics in 1997.
In 1999 Avon released the all-prose unillustrated version,
which appeared on a number of bestseller lists, was selected
by Publishers Weekly as one of the best books of the
year, and was awarded the prestigious Mythopoeic Award as
best novel for adults.
American Gods, a novel for adults,
was published in 2001 and appeared on many best-of-the-year
lists, was a New York Times bestseller in both hardcover
and paperback, and won the Hugo, Nebula, SFX, Bram Stoker,
and Locus Awards.
Coraline (2002), his first novel
for children, was a New York Times and international
bestseller, was nominated for the Prix Tam Tam, and won the
Elizabeth Burr/Worzalla Award, the BSFA Award, the Hugo, the
Nebula and the Bram Stoker Award.
2003 saw the publication of bestseller
The Wolves in the Walls, a children’s picture
book, illustrated by Gaiman’s longtime collaborator
Dave McKean, which the New York Times named as one
of the best illustrated books of the year; and the first Sandman
graphic novel in seven years, Endless Nights, the
first graphic novel to make the New York Times bestseller
list.
In 2004, Gaiman published the a new graphic
novel for Marvel called 1602, which was the best-selling
comic of 2004, and 2005 saw the Sundance Film Festival premiere
of “MirrorMask,” a Jim Henson Company Production
written by Gaiman and directed by McKean. A lavishly designed
book containing the complete script, black and white storyboards,
and full-color art from the film will be published by William
Morrow in early 2005; a picture book for younger readers,
also written by Gaiman and illustrated with art from the movie,
will be published by HarperCollins Children’s Books
at a later date.
Gaiman’s
official website has 400,000 unique visitors per month
in 2004; close to 600,000 per month are expected in 2005.
His online journal is syndicated to thousands of blog readers
every day.
Born and raised in England, Neil Gaiman
now lives near Minneapolis, Minnesota. |
