This quality is exemplified by its protagonist, Shadow, who is both the eternal everyman and something more, something special. The novel elevates the ordinary and the everyday to mythic status, finding significance in the smallest of things. The book is interspersed at various points with stories of immigrants who brought their gods and their beliefs to America with them, and the gods themselves have integrated just as well as their former worshipers. But unbeknownst to him, he has a much larger role in the oncoming conflict than he thinks. Shadow runs errands for Wednesday and travels into the very heart of America, visiting its small towns and meeting its people and its old, forgotten gods, struggling to stay relevant in the modern era. Wednesday is strangely interested in Shadow, and offers to hire him on as a bodyguard and accomplice Shadow, with nothing left of his old life and nothing better to do, agrees.

At loose ends in the world, Shadow finds himself sharing a flight with a seedy old con man who asks to be called Mr. Unfortunately, things are not that simple: Shortly before being released, Shadow discovers that Laura was killed in a car accident alongside the aforementioned friend and gets out early. He isn't a bad man and wants little more than to go back to his beloved wife Laura, get a job at his friend's gym and live a quiet, simple life. A 2001 novel by Neil Gaiman, interesting for its examination of the intersection between myth and Americana.Īfter a three-year prison term following an assault conviction, a man known only as Shadow is ready to be released back into society.

American gods novel