God is dead. Meet the kids.

ANANSI BOYS (On-sale September 20, 2005; ISBN: 006051518X; $26.95; William Morrow/An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers; HarperAudio editions available on MP3-CD, ISBN 0060836857, $34.95; and unabridged CD, ISBN 0060823844, $39.95) is the newest work of literary magic from Neil Gaiman, the New York Times bestselling pop culture phenomenon. ANANSI BOYS marks Gaiman's return to the mythic territory he so brilliantly explored in his New York Times bestselling novel, American Gods.

Readers across America and around the world were first introduced to Mr. Nancy ("Anansi"), the spider god, in American Gods. ANANSI BOYS tells the story of his two sons, Fat Charlie and Spider.

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 shows up on Charlie's doorstep, who appears to be the brother he never knew. A brother as different from Charlie as night 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. 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 even cheat Death himself.

About this genre-transcending work, Gaiman notes, "It's a scary, funny sort of story, which isn't exactly a thriller, and isn't really horror, and doesn't quite qualify as a ghost story (although it has at least one ghost in it), or a romantic comedy (although there are several romances in there, and it's certainly a comedy, except the scary bits). If you have to classify it, it's probably a magical-horror-thriller-ghost-romantic-comedy-family epic, although that leaves out the detective bits and much of the food." (After all, there is a very interesting lime.)

ANANSI BOYS is a wild adventure, at once a literary tour de force and an unstoppable, delightful farce, showing us where gods come from – as well as how to survive one's own family.