Son Of A Witch: A Novel

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Description

Ten years after the publication of "Wicked", bestselling novelist Gregory Maguire returns to the land of Oz to follow the story of Liir, the adolescent boy left hiding in the shadows of the castle when Dorothy did in the Witch. A decade after the Witch has melted away, the young man Liir is discovered bruised, comatose, and left for dead in a gully. Shattered in spirit as well as in form, he is tended by the mysterious Candle, a foundling in her own right, until failed campaigns of his childhood bear late, unexpected fruit. Liir is only one part of the world that Elphaba left behind. As a boy hardly in his teens, he is asked to help the needy in ways in which he may be unskilled. Is he Elphaba's son Has his power of his own In "Son of a Witch", Gregory Maguire suggests that the magic we locate in distant, improbable places like Oz is no greater than the magic inherent in any hard life lived fully, son of a witch or no.

Reviews

"As fantastical as a novel set in Oz should be." -- Entertainment Weekly

"Maguire's captivating, fully imagined world of horror and wonder illuminates the links between good and evil, retribution and forgiveness." -- People

"Maguire is full of storytelling brio . . . his Oz is meticulously drawn." -- New York Times

"A powerful cast of characters . . . Maguire has engaged in virtuoso fashion the very themes that turned what many considered a literary trifle into an American classic. . . . One of those rare books that, although not designed for children, absorbs us in ways that only childhood reading usually can, even as it refuses to let us take cover from the real world while we are reading it." -- Los Angeles Times

"Masterfully imaginative. . . . Mesmerizing. . . . A headspinning cast of vividly described, eccentric characters emerges. . . . [An] enchanting fable." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Richly detailed. . . . Filled with wonderful things. . . . Once again, the myth of Oz proves its enduring power." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"A tale that adroitly mixes drama, humor, and political satire into a well-knit examination of good and evil." -- Library Journal

"Maguire has done it again: Son of a Witch is as wicked as they come. . . . Thoroughly entertaining." -- Boston Globe

Author Bio

Gregory Maguire is the bestselling author of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, the basis for the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical of the same name together with Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Lost and Mirror Mirror.