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{{work}}
{{Infobox book
''Anansi Boys'' is a 2005 novel by [[Neil Gaiman]], set in [[The Verse|the same fictional universe]] as his earlier ''[[American Gods]]'', although not a direct sequel to that story -- more of a [[Lighter and Softer]] spinoff, and it was conceived earlier. The protagonist is the nice but unambitious and chronically unlucky Charles Nancy -- nicknamed 'Fat Charlie' by his father at age 10 and dogged by the name ever since, despite not actually being fat -- who's somewhat nonplussed to be told that his recently deceased father was the African trickster god Anansi. Oh, and the reason Fat Charlie doesn't have his dad's godlike powers is that they went to the brother he never knew existed, who he can contact by giving a message to a spider. Not believing a word of this, Fat Charlie nevertheless gets drunk and tells a spider to invite his brother to come for a visit.▼
| title = Anansi Boys
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| author = Neil Gaiman
| central theme =
| elevator pitch =
| genre = Modern fantasy
| franchise =
| preceded by =
| followed by =
| publication date = September 20, 2005
| wiki URL =
| wiki name =
}}
▲'''''Anansi Boys''''' is a 2005 novel by [[Neil Gaiman]], set in [[The Verse|the same fictional universe]] as his earlier ''[[American Gods]]'', although not a direct sequel to that story
Within a couple of days of Spider turning up, Fat Charlie has lost his job and fiancée, and is also wanted by the police. Willing to do anything to make his brother go away again, he finds a way to contact the other gods and makes a deal. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|And then things start to
[[Lenny Henry]] has voiced Fat Charlie for both the audiobook and a BBC Radio adaptation. A film version allegedly fell through because [[Executive Meddling|the studio]] wanted [[Race Lift|a predominantly white cast]], despite almost every character in the book being black. However, he{{who}} has since resumed work on it, and a first draft of a script has been completed.▼
▲[[Lenny Henry]] has voiced Fat Charlie for both the audiobook and a BBC Radio adaptation. A film version allegedly fell through because [[Executive Meddling|the studio]] wanted [[Race Lift|a predominantly white cast]], despite almost every character in the book being black. However, he has since resumed work on it, and a first draft of a script has been completed.
{{tropelist}}
* [[Amazingly Embarrassing Parents]]: Fat Charlie's father even ''dies'' in an embarrassing way.
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* [[Laser-Guided Karma]]: After the incident with his cab driver, Fat Charlie finds himself forced to take his lime everywhere, because word got around about the man with the lime, and everyone is demanding to see it.
* [[Lighter and Softer]]: Compared to ''[[American Gods]]'', this is almost pure comedy. It's as good, though.
* [[
* [[Little Bit Beastly]]
** The gods of the animal pantheon all have characteristics of the animals they're based on, such as tails, whiskers -- and extra nipples.
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* [[No Name Given]]: Is Rosie's mother ever referred to as anything other than Rosie's mother or Mrs. Noah? (Her name is Eutheria Noah, but it's only mentioned once, and it states that no one ever used her name but her husband, and he's dead now.)
* [[Not-So-Harmless Villain]]: Graham Coats {{spoiler|killing Maeve Livingstone}}. He goes downhill from there.
* [[Nothing Is Scarier]]: [[Discussed]] in chapter 13:
* [[Only Known by Their Nickname]]: right up to the point when Fat Charlie {{spoiler|[[Took a Level in Badass|figures out his powers]]. From the next sentence, the narration and the other characters just call him 'Charlie'.}}▼
{{quote|"I," it said, "am frightened of nothing."
"Nothing?"
"Nothing," it said.
Charlie said, "Are you ''extremely'' frightened of nothing?"
"Absolutely terrified of it," admitted the Dragon.}}
▲* [[Only Known by Their Nickname]]:
* [[Performance Anxiety]]: Charles Nancy has it so bad, he passes out when he gets up on stage to perform earlier in the novel.
* [[Physical God]]: Mr. Nancy, Spider and the rest of the animal pantheon.
* [[Race Lift]]: Averted; executives wanted to recast the leads as white for the film, despite the fact that most are black, and African heritage is something of a plot point for the eponymous brothers. Gaiman shut 'em down.
* [[Rascally Rabbit]]: It is mentioned that some trickster rabbit stories were initially Anansi's.
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* [[Smug Snake]]: Grahame Coats.
* [[Split At Birth]]: Not quite at birth, but at a young enough age that Fat Charlie didn't know he had a brother. {{spoiler|Because technically, Spider isn't Fat Charlie's brother; he's an aspect of Fat Charlie's own personality who got split off and sent away by an angry old woman who knew some magic.}}
▲* [[Starfish Character]]: They even explicitly refer to it by the old trope name.
* [[Stealth Pun]]: Daisy was named Daisy because at the time of her birth, her parents owned a tandem (a bicycle built for two).
* [[Twin Threesome Fantasy]]: Grahame Coats has one of these about Maeve Livingston and her hypothetical identical naked twin sister, Maeve II.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]▼
[[Category:Fantasy Literature]]
[[Category:New Weird]]
[[Category:Literature of the 2000s]]
▲[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:British Literature]]
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