Fat Charlie Nancy is a nice bloke living a humdrum life in South London. He has a job that pays the rent, a lovely fiancee and thoughts of marriage on his mind. He tries not to think about his father, a larger-than-life character and a source of constant embarrassment to Charlie. All this changes when his father drops dead and Charlie is forced to realise that he's the son of a god. Anansi the Spider, the trickster of African folklore, to be precise. Furthermore, Charlie has a previously unknown brother who is everything Charlie is not - stylish, charming, eloquent and vivacious. A brother who is staying in his spare room and seducing his girlfriend. The book really takes off when Charlie makes an ill-considered deal with an associate of his father's in order to get his life back to normal. Don't make deals with gods, kids.

Neil Gaiman returns to the territory of his previous novel, American Gods - figures from ancient mythology wandering around in the modern world. Fans of his Sandman series will be familiar with this already, and it's subject matter that Gaiman handles with skill. Anansi Boys is much lighter than American Gods, though not without its darker moments. The reader (well this reader) is drawn in to Fat Charlie's life and sides with him in his quest to discover who he really is. A darkly comic subplot involving his scheming weasel of a boss plays out well against the main story.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable book. One that had me staying up late into the night, thinking "oh, one more chapter, then I'll go to bed" when, suddenly, I realised I'd read the whole thing in a single sitting.