Neil Gaiman can do no wrong, as far as I can tell. Yet another excellent novel.

This one feels almost like a continuation or variation on American Gods. It's about the African spider god Anansi, and in particular his sons. The viewpoint character is Fat Charlie (a Paul Simon reference?), who has to deal with his father's death and his newfound brother Spider, who causes all sorts of trouble.

Anansi was a minor character in American Gods, and it's not clear if this is the same one in the same world. Gaiman seems to have a theme in many of his novels of the protaganist discovering that they are somehow magical/divine/not what they thought they were (thinking of Neverwhere and American Gods in particular). He also like the whole coming of age thing as well.

Anansi Boys incorporates both themes with his usual skill. I suspect Gaiman fans will not be surprised by any of the content, but he really is a masterful writer, both stylistically and in creating interesting, human characters. I particularly enjoyed his descriptions of Fat Charlie's prospective mother-in-law, which are richly detailed and quite amusing.