A Lion Among Men - (Wicked Years) by Gregory Maguire (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

New York Times Bestseller

Focusing on the Cowardly Lion, the third in the Wicked Years series which started with 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.

In A Lion Among Men Gregory Maguire continues to flesh out the world of Oz, seen this time through the eyes of the Cowardly Lion--remembered from Wicked as a tiny cub defended by Elphaba.

While civil war looms in Oz, an ancient and tetchy oracle named Yackle prepares for death. Before she can return to dust, however, the Cowardly Lion--an enigmatic figure named Brrr--arrives in search of information about Elphaba Thropp, the Wicked Witch of the West. As payment, Yackle who hovered on the sidelines of Elphaba's life, demands some answers of her own.

Abandoned as a cub, Brrr's earliest memories are only gluey hazes. But his path from infancy in the Great Gillikin Forest is no Yellow Brick Road. Seeking to redress an early mistake, he tumbles through a swamp of ghosts, becomes implicated in a massacre of trolls, and falls in love with a Cat princess. Sidestepping the laws that oppress talking Animals, Brrr cannily avoids a jail sentence by agreeing to serve as a lackey to the warmongering Emperor of Oz.

A Lion Among Men traces a battle of wits between adversaries distracted by the armies approaching on either side of them. What does the Lion know of the whereabouts of the Witch's boy, Liir? What can Yackle reveal about the auguries of the Clock of the Time Dragon? Is destiny ever arbitrary? Can those tarnished by infamy escape their sobriquets--cowardly, wicked, brainless, criminally earnest--to claim their own histories, to live honorably within their own skins before they're skinned alive?

Review Quotes

"Maguire's work is melodic, symphonic and beautiful; it is dejected and biting and brave. . . . In fabulous details and self-mocking language, Maguire displays his gift for whimsical portrayals of the broken, the powerless, the hopeless, the bad." -- Los Angeles Times

"Much to savor, laugh at, and think about. . . . A page-turning fantasy and a timely political allegory." -- USA Today

"Entertaining....The author mixes some relatively weighty existential themes--the search for self, faith, redemption--into his whimsical story line. [A] darkly enchanting saga" -- Publishers Weekly

"Engrossing...Maguire is a masterful storyteller with an uncanny flair for mixing political and personal while exploring what it means--and what it costs--to be accepted in a society." -- New York Daily News

"As usual, Maguire, a seasoned fabulist, populates his version of Oz with a cast of utterly fantastical characters who must face their own inner demons while tumult and uncertainty rages around them. An absolute must-read for fans of this ever-evolving dark fairy tale." -- Booklist

"This Oz goes far beyond L. Frank Baum's; it's as surreal as a dream, but as immaculately and impeccably detailed as history. Maguire's wizardlike grasp over every aspect of this reinvented land rivals classic literary landscapes like Tolkien's Middle Earth and Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County." -- Albany Times Union

"So well-crafted that readers of all ages could enjoy witnessing Brrrr's transformation from an insecure kitten in the woods to a compassionate, engaged 'manimal.'" -- Christian Science Monitor

"The third book in Maguire's Wicked Years is at once funny, charming, harrowing, bleak and incredibly beautiful." -- The American Chronicle

"The minute you open A Lion Among Men, you're back in Maguire's exquisitely detailed environment, caught up once again in his geography, his characters, his worldview, touched anew by the loneliness that lurks in the heart of all things." -- New Orleans Times-Picayune