Anansi Boys, Charlie Nancy (called Fat Charlie since childhood) is living a mostly unhappy and insecure life in London when he returns to Florida for his father's funeral. Charlie is told his father was the West African deity Anansi (first introduced in
American Gods), the spider god of stories and trickery, and that some of the women at the funeral are witches. When Charlie returns to London, a brother he didn't know he had arrives on his doorstep, going by the name of Spider. Spider is everything Charlie isn't - charming, funny, tricky. He steals Charlie's fiancee, gets him fired from his job, and frames him for embezzlement. Charlie returns to Florida to learn some black magic to counter his brother's actions, but finds he needs his newly found powers to protect against a larger evil. Neil Gaiman's novel has received mostly positive reviews with the Washington Post saying, "With
Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman's delightful, funny and affecting new novel, the bestselling author has scored the literary equivalent of a hole in one, employing the kind of self-assured storytelling that makes it all look so easy."
