Anansi Boys

By: Neil Gaiman

Narrated by: Lenny Henry

Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

A darkly comic family fable and companion novel to American Gods.

THE NUMBER ONE NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER AND COMPANION NOVEL TO AMERICAN GODS.

Everything changes for Fat Charlie Nancy, the South London boy so called by his father, the day his dad drops dead while doing karaoke.

Charlie didn't know his estranged father was a god - Anansi the trickster, master of mischief and social disorder. He never knew he had a brother either.

Now brother Spider is on his doorstep, about to make life more interesting...and a lot more dangerous. It's a meeting that will take Fat Charlie from his London home to Florida, the Caribbean, and the very beginning of the world itself. Or the end of the world, depending on which way you're looking.

NEIL GAIMAN.

WITH STORIES COME POSSIBILITIES.

©2005 Neil Gaiman (P)2005 HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

Critic reviews

"A warm, funny, immensely entertaining story...Anansi Boys combines the anarchy of Douglas Adams with a Wodehousian generosity of spirit." (Susanna Clarke)
"Lenny Henry...is absolutely the perfect choice to read Anansi Boys....An absolutely top-notch performance, one that makes a terrific book even better." (Publishers Weekly)
"Mixing farce and fantasy, epic mythology and domestic drama, Gaiman's novel is a clever piece of storytelling and a celebration of the magic of make-believe." (Independent on Sunday)

Lenny Henry brought this book alive for me

What did you love best about Anansi Boys?

I have always loved Neil Gaiman and have read Anansi Boys more than once. However, listening to Lenny Henry tell it brought so many new aspects alive for me. It was a truly delightful experience.

Fantastic

Narrator is absolutely fantastic, does the voices so well. Really knows how to bring Gaiman's story alive and make the listener laugh!

Great story, great reader.

This was my first audiobook. What a great introduction. One of the best books I have ever read. The naration was fabulous.

Highly recommended

What an imaginative story - and beautifully read by Lenny Henry!

Unequivocal Delight

I would like to congratulate the producer of this excellent audio book who thought of paring the unique style of Neil Gaiman with the talent of Lenny Henry. The sum of the parts is truly greater than the whole, the book written with charm and wit, but Henry’s execution brings it to a whole other level. I just did not want it to end.

My ABSOLUTE favourite

I have read this book, listened to this book, & lent others this book (hard copy) more times than I can remember.
Lenny Henry's narration is perfect.
Neil Gaiman's story of course is unforgettable. I guarantee you will never look at a spider the same way again. :)

Entertaining absurdity

It is interesting how Neil Gaiman takes the listener in a captivating way to the absurd, and making it believable. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

The story starts with a man called Fat Charlie, being called fat, only because his father called him fat. Very much like the neighbour's dog, who won prices in dog shows until his father called the dog Goofy. Gaiman warns the reader that the story isn't an ordinary one. It becomes more and more interesting as Fat Charlie's father's nature is introduced to you. Then Fat Charlie also has to deal with his mischievous long lost brother, Spider. Gaiman interweaves the impossible into a possible setting, making the story unpredictable.

The narrator, Lenny Henry, does an excellent job in interpreting the various characters. I enjoyed his interpretative reading, especially his African-American accent needed to understand the characters.

Khim

Well narrated. Love the voice and great effort in narrating different voices on different characters.

Tremendous. Perfect narrator and narration.

I do love Neil Gaiman's books but hadn't yet read this one on paper. After listening to Anansi Boys, I want to experience all his other novels in audio form. For me, Lenny Henry's narration added a whole extra dimension of joy, and slowing down my experience of the book made me realise how wonderful Neil Gaiman's language and observation is.

Lenny Henry is the perfect narrator for this story; his pacing, his rendition of the characters' voices and thoughts, and the way he can bring both the humour and the awkwardness to life, delighted me.

Neil Gaiman is awesome as usual

What about Lenny Henry’s performance did you like?

Lenny Henry is an inspired choice to narrate this novel. His vocal expressiveness is simply the best I have heard so far in an audiobook, the characters are clearly differentiated and he always gets the emphasis right. The only (very minor) criticism I have is that some silent gaps between segments are a little longer than they need to be - but that's better than no gaps at all which I have encountered in some other books.

Any additional comments?

I love the way Neil Gaiman mixes mythology with reality. To say any more would be to risk spoilers. I haven't quite finished listening but I'm really looking forward to hearing how it ends. I believe I can predict some of the outcome, but not how it will be achieved.