American Gods

Recently released convict serving as Wednesday's driver and muscle; plays checkers with his life as stake, receives a moon-dollar from Zorya Polunochnaya, participates in a bank con, witnesses the gods' assembly, and flees through winter woods after a violent incident.

A prison coworker, large and blond, assembling bird feeders alongside Shadow and Low Key.

The prison warden who delivers news of Laura's death and authorizes Shadow's early release; military bearing, emotionless delivery.

Prison guard who escorts Shadow to the warden's office and makes a callous joke about the good-news/bad-news nature of the release.

A one-eyed con man revealed as Odin, orchestrating a war among gods; recruits allies through persuasion and manipulation, runs a bank con with Shadow, and convenes gods at the House on the Rock.

Shadow's deceased wife, killed in a car accident while performing oral sex on Robbie; reanimates in Shadow's motel room, cold and purposeful.

A deteriorating Irish leprechaun who confronts Shadow to reclaim the magic coin given to Laura's grave; delivers a gallows prophecy, accepts twenty dollars, and is last seen alive on a bridge in Cairo.

Robbie's widow and Laura's best friend; spits on Laura's corpse and reveals the nature of Laura's death to Shadow; drives alongside him demanding acknowledgment.

An old Slavic god of darkness who worked the kill floor in Chicago stockyards; initially refuses Wednesday, then wagers his cooperation against the right to kill Shadow with a sledgehammer, and loses the final game.

One of the Zorya sisters; smaller and frailer than her counterpart but still golden-haired; briskly hospitable, serves black coffee.

Shadow's former prison cellmate revealed to be Loki Lie-Smith; drives for the new gods, explains godhood as crystallized belief, and dismisses Wednesday's death as ending the war.

The evening Zorya sister; tells fortunes in twilight, cooks dinner, and insists the guests stay rather than go to a hotel.

The midnight Zorya sister; meets Shadow on the rooftop, warns him he gave away his protection (the gold coin), and grants him a silver Liberty-head dollar plucked seemingly from the moon.

A Cornish girl steeped in piskie-lore who enters service, is seduced and dismissed, has a stillborn child, and turns to crime; her story is told by Mr. Ibis as a Coming to America interlude.

West African spider trickster god; rides the Carousel, comments wryly on Wednesday's strategy, and explains to Shadow that Wednesday is slowly working the old gods.

A Hindu goddess in a red sari, perceived doubly as an old woman and a multi-armed destroyer; argues forcefully against Wednesday's war, counseling patience and inaction.

A sharp-tongued Cherokee college student hitchhiking south; perceptive and outspoken, she debates gods and identity with Shadow before being dropped in El Paso, IL.

New god of television who manifests as Lucy Ricardo to recruit Shadow away from Wednesday, offering wealth and flattery before the TV shuts off.

Egyptian god Thoth running a funeral home in Cairo; offers Shadow sanctuary, explains ancient American trade routes, and comments on the fading power of old gods.

Egyptian god Anubis performing autopsies and running the mortuary; ritually eats slices of organs during the autopsy, reflects on the dying prospects of old gods in America.

Cheerful elderly keeper of Lakeside; brings Shadow a welcome basket, shows him fishing flies, and tells tales of local history; his deep roots in the town carry an unspoken menace.

Lakeside reporter and Shadow's neighbor; invites him to dinner, grieves a missing/presumed-dead son named Sandy, and exchanges small talk about Alison McGovern.

Lakeside's police chief who overhears the confrontation, shoots Hinzelmann, and is subsequently saved from suicidal despair by Shadow's psychic intervention.

A goddess of spring with green eyes and a forget-me-not tattoo; mourns her own irrelevance as modern people use her name without belief; agrees to fight beside Wednesday's coalition.

An invisible, forgettable man who moves through a Las Vegas casino counting room unnoticed, drawn to the flow of money; subsequently joined by Wednesday in a bar.

A Dahomean man captured into slavery, mutilated, and eventually possessed by Elegba; leads the 1791 Haitian slave revolt and dies fighting in 1802 before independence.

Agasu's twin sister, enslaved across the Carolinas and New Orleans; becomes a feared voodoo practitioner and passes her knowledge to Marie Laveau before dying.

A proud young mixed-race hairdresser in New Orleans who seeks out Mama Zouzou to learn voodoo; historically the famous voodoo queen.

Native American trickster figure in a trailer; flatly refuses to join Wednesday's war but offers Shadow cryptic wisdom about death and hunting.

American folk-mythic figure present at Whiskey Jack's trailer; also declines to fight for Wednesday, lamenting being forgotten in favor of Paul Bunyan.

Government/intelligence operative allied with new gods; retrieves a ritual stick from the world-tree and unwittingly picks up Laura as a hitchhiker.

New gods' agent who recites part of Yeats's 'The Second Coming' at the handover, visibly unsettled — Nancy notes he meddled with something that 'screwed him right back.'

Prehistoric shamaness who leads her tribe across the Bering land bridge; defies Nunyunnini, is prophesied to die before the tribe enters the new land, and voices the novel's thesis about gods coming from human hearts.

Mammoth-skull god of Atsula's tribe; speaks through tribe members who wear the skull-cloak; commands eastward migration and is eventually forgotten in the New World.

Tribe scout who dresses and lives as a man; leads the people safely to the ice cliffs; eventually becomes an ancestor of the New World tribes.

Elderly tribal elder who participates in the oracle ritual and voices Nunyunnini.

The tribe's war leader; boastful of warrior prowess; voices Nunyunnini with the promise of a new land.

Young Welsh god working in a Humansville supermarket; pledges to join the old gods after hearing of Wednesday's death; described as having come to America in the seventh century.

Self-described king of the dwarfs, tallest dwarf in America at five-eight or five-nine; briefly encountered and mentions the vigil to the group.

Speaks from the assembled gods to question Shadow's claim that Wednesday really died; accepts Shadow's explanation of the sacrifice.

Unnamed but implied bearded man in the apocryphal appendix scene; discusses the burden of godhood with Shadow over sour wine in a Spanish-style building.