American Gods by Neil Gaiman - Roman Numeral Edition

A masterful blend of fantasy, horror, Americana and mythology, American Gods is Neil Gaiman’s exhilarating and imaginative road trip epic, examining faith and mortality in the age of media obsession.

After three years in prison, Shadow is a man who has done his time. No longer afraid of what the future may bring, his only desire is to be reunited with his wife Laura and to start a new life. But just days before his release, Shadow’s best friend and Laura are killed in a car accident, leaving him lost and heartbroken. With his life in shambles and no plans for his future, Shadow accepts a job offer from Mr. Wednesday, a beguiling stranger he meets on his way home who seems to know more about Shadow than Shadow does himself. Being Mr. Wednesday’s bodyguard, driver and errand boy proves more dangerous than Shadow could have ever imagined, taking him on a dark and strange road trip that introduces him to a host of eccentric characters whose fates seem mysteriously intertwined with his own.

Published on June 19, 2001, American Gods was hailed as an instant classic, showered with praise by critics and peers alike. Michael Chabon wrote, “American Gods manages to reinvent, and reassert, the enduring importance of fantastic literature itself in this late age of the world. Dark fun, and nourishing to the soul.” George R.R. Martin praised it as “original, engrossing and endlessly inventive.” Library Journal called it “compellingly imaginative,” while Amazon’s review raved, “American Gods is Neil Gaiman’s most ambitious novel yet. An outside-in and inside-out perspective on the soul and spirituality of America’s obsessions with money and power, our jumbled religious heritage and its societal outcomes, and the millennial decisions we face about what’s real and what’s not.”

In 2002, American Gods won the Nebula Award, the Locus Award, the Hugo Award, the SFX Award and Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel. In 2017, it was adapted into an Emmy Award nominated television series.

Our edition of this modern day classic features the author’s preferred text, a previously published note and afterword by the author, and two sequel novellas, The Monarch of the Glen and Black Dog, making it the most complete edition to date.

The fine press limited edition of American Gods by Neil Gaiman is presented in four states: Roman Numeral, Lettered, Numbered and Classic editions. 

ROMAN NUMERAL EDITION

• 6¾” x 9⅝” trim size.
• 842 Pages.
• Limited to 10 copies.
• Published as two volumes. 
• Signed by Neil Gaiman and Yoann Lossel.
• Introduction to the text and afterword by Neil Gaiman, reprinted from an earlier edition.
• Two American Gods sequel novellas: Black Dog and The Monarch of the Glen. 
• Hand sewn and covered in full black Katsina fine goatskin from Harmatan and Oakridge Leathers, with a laser cut pattern from a design by Yoann Lossel, reflecting the blocking on the interior illustrations.
• Leather is overlaid onto hand colored mouldmade Bockingford 190gsm watercolor paper.
• Endpapers are also of the same hand colored watercolor paper. 
• Covers feature hand applied dusting of genuine leaf with hand tooled stars and dots in metallic foil, and a hand blocked title in pigment foil, with the volume number hand tooled in pigment foil.
• Top edge is colored to match with applied genuine leaf.
• Head & tail bands are leather with hand stitched detail.
• Volume 1 is red, orange and yellow with genuine 22k yellow gold leaf and gold tooling.
• Volume 2 is blue, turquoise and green with genuine platinum leaf and silver tooling. 
• Ten illustrations (nine full color and one monochrome) by award-winning artist Yoann Lossel, all of which feature gold foil accents with offset print production supervised by the artist using his preferred printer.
• Printed letterpress on 120 gsm handmade Velké Losiny paper by Pat Randle and Ellen Bills at Nomad Letterpress on a Heidelberg Cylinder in Gloucestershire, United Kingdom. 
  
• Paper for this edition is a special making with a custom watermark of a Gryphon.
• Text pages are set in Requiem.
• Housed in a cloth covered clamshell enclosure with velour lined trays.
• Hand crafted by multi-award winning bookbinder Kate Holland in Somerset, United Kingdom.
• Fine art print with genuine gold leaf and a print of the Classic edition dust jacket art are included.
  
• Bookmarks included with all pre-orders. 

PLEASE NOTE: Roman Numeral editions are shipped with a signature required.

Published editions may differ slightly from mockups and prototype designs.
Illustrations © 2023 by Yoann Lossel.