Just before his release from prison, Shadow learns that his wife has been killed in a car accident. Aimless and in shock, he meets Mr Wednesday, a hustler and con man with a number of peculiar friends. After accepting a job as Wednesday’s bodyguard and driver, Shadow finds himself on a road trip across the haunted landscape of America and, along with his shady boss, is soon embroiled in a conflict that could destroy them all: a war between the old gods and the new.

American Gods is a sweeping exploration of story, myth and the shifting nature of belief itself. According to Mr Wednesday, gods travelled to the new world with their immigrant worshippers only to flounder in a land both too strange and too modern to nurture them.

Although the story is rooted in the familiar – American Gods gives us Egyptian deities who run funeral parlours, and gods who drive cabs to make a living – it tears back the veil to reveal the pulsing supernatural heart of America. Crammed with unconventional yet wholly engaging characters, this story of coin tricks, cons and misdirection is considered a masterpiece.