Son of a Witch (Wicked Years #2)

The New York Times bestselling sequel to Wicked, the multimillion-copy bestseller and basis for the Tony Award–winning hit musical, soon to be a major motion picture starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.

When a Witch dies—not as a crone, withered and incapable, but as a woman in her prime, at the height of her passion and prowess—too much is left unsaid. What might have happened had Elphaba lived? Of her campaigns in defense of the Animals, of her appetite for justice, of her talent for magic itself, what good might have come? If every death is a tragedy, the death of a woman in her prime keenly bereaves the whole world.

Gregory Maguire returns to the world of Wicked and 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 he power of his own? Can he liberate Princess Nastoya into a dignified death? Can he locate his supposed half-sister, Nor, last seen in shackles in the Wizard’s protection? Can he survive in an Oz little improved since the death of the Wicked Witch of the West? Can he learn to fly?

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.

About the Author

Gregory Maguire has written quite a few books for adults, including Wicked, which inspired the Broadway play and the two-part movie. He’s also written several dozen books for children, the more recent titles being What-the-Dickens, Egg & Spoon, and Cress Watercress, a Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor Book. 

Reviews

“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

Dimensions: 13.49 x 2.37 x 20.32