American Gods
The old gods are living in diners and run-down motels and they are losing. Gaiman built a whole theology out of forgotten immigrants and broken promises.
Old Gods, New Country
Neil Gaiman's 2001 novel follows Shadow Moon, a convict just released from prison, who is recruited by the mysterious Mr Wednesday to travel across America gathering old gods for a war against the new ones. Anansi runs a funeral parlour in Georgia. Czernobog works in a Chicago slaughterhouse. Bilquis takes her worship where she can find it. Meanwhile the gods of the internet, media, and highways are preparing to eradicate the old deities who came to America in the minds of immigrants and were then forgotten. The novel won the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and the Bram Stoker Award.
Reading American Gods
Mythology
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Chapter
"What I say is, a town isn't a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it's got a bookstore it knows it's not fooling a soul.
"Neil Gaiman
Gaiman researched the novel by driving across America visiting roadside attractions, diners, and small towns. He wanted to capture the America that exists between the famous places, which he said felt genuinely mythological.
The novel exists in three different editions: the original 2001 publication, a preferred text edition restoring 12,000 words Gaiman removed for the original release, and an author's preferred text that Gaiman considers definitive.