Shadow is a man searching, somewhat unwillingly, for the substance of his life. As he prepares to finish his term in prison and return home, he discovers his wife has been killed. Dazed on his way to the funeral, he meets an oddly omniscent man who offers him employment. After some hesitation, he agrees and finds himself in an odd twilight: his employer may be an ancient god, America may be a battleground between the ancient gods and the brash gods of the modern age, and his wife may not be fully dead.

Shadow’s ensuing roadtrip is a cool amalgam of americana and belief. The ancient dieties, brought to this land by generations of immigrants, are slowly being forgotten. They lurk in out-of-the-way neighborhoods, small towns, and kitchy tourist traps. Some are con men, others struggling with small businesses. They find themselves being shoved out of American life. Gaiman is able to portray the passing of the ancient ways with a melancholy that doesn’t turn a blind eye to the violence that has often marked humanity’s religious history.

The story is about Shadow, however, and his problems and their resolutions are less clearly told. Gaiman describes Shadow as a man struggling: with his lack of passion and resolve in this life, with the circumstances of this wife’s death, and perhaps with his father. The interaction between Shadow dealing with these issues and his introduction to the ancient dieties is murky. It was difficult for me to gain insight from Shadow’s struggles or the resolution that flitters around at story’s end.