Wicked Years 03: A Lion Among Men

New York TimesBestseller

Focusing on the Cowardly Lion, the third in the Wicked Years series which started withWicked, the multimillion-copybestseller and basis for the Tony Awardwinning hit musical, soon to be a major motion picture starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.

InA Lion Among MenGregory Maguire continues to flesh out the world of Oz, seen this time through the eyes of the Cowardly Lionremembered fromWickedas 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 Lionan enigmatic figure named Brrrarrives in search of information about Elphaba Thropp, the Wicked Witch of the West. As payment, Yackle who hovered on the sidelines of Elphabas life, demands some answers of her own.

Abandoned as a cub, Brrrs 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 Mentraces 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 Witchs 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 sobriquetscowardly, wicked, brainless, criminally earnestto claim their own histories, to live honorably within their own skins before theyre skinned alive