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Also by Gregory Maguire:

The Witch of Maracoor, October 2023
Hardcover
The Oracle of Maracoor, September 2023
Trade Paperback / e-Book (reprint)
The Oracle of Maracoor, October 2022
Hardcover / e-Book
The Brides of Maracoor, September 2022
Hardcover / e-Book
A Wild Winter Swan, September 2021
Paperback / e-Book (reprint)
A Wild Winter Swan, October 2020
Hardcover / e-Book
Hiddensee, November 2017
Hardcover / e-Book
Out Of Oz, October 2012
Trade Size / e-Book (reprint)
Out Of Oz, November 2011
Hardcover / e-Book
Matchless: A Christmas Story, November 2009
Hardcover
Making Mischief: A Maurice Sendak Appreciation, September 2009
Hardcover
A Lion Among Men, October 2008
Hardcover
Wicked, October 2007
Paperback
Son of A Witch, October 2005
Hardcover
Wicked, November 1996
Trade Size (reprint)

Hiddensee
Gregory Maguire

From the author of the beloved #1 New York Times bestseller Wicked, the magical story of a toymaker, a nutcracker, and a legend remade . . .

William Morrow
November 2017
On Sale: October 31, 2017
304 pages
ISBN: 0062684388
EAN: 9780062684387
Kindle: B01N9ZRNBG
Hardcover / e-Book
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Fantasy Historical

Gregory Maguire returns with an inventive novel inspired by a timeless holiday legend, intertwining the story of the famous Nutcracker with the life of the mysterious toy maker named Drosselmeier who carves him.

Hiddensee: An island of white sandy beaches, salt marshes, steep cliffs, and pine forests north of Berlin in the Baltic Sea, an island that is an enchanting bohemian retreat and home to a large artists' colony-- a wellspring of inspiration for the Romantic imagination . . .

Having brought his legions of devoted readers to Oz in Wicked and to Wonderland in After Alice, Maguire now takes us to the realms of the Brothers Grimm and E. T. A. Hoffmann-- the enchanted Black Forest of Bavaria and the salons of Munich. Hiddensee imagines the backstory of the Nutcracker, revealing how this entrancing creature came to be carved and how he guided an ailing girl named Klara through a dreamy paradise on a Christmas Eve. At the heart of Hoffmann's mysterious tale hovers Godfather Drosselmeier-- the ominous, canny, one-eyed toy maker made immortal by Petipa and Tchaikovsky's fairy tale ballet-- who presents the once and future Nutcracker to Klara, his goddaughter.

But Hiddensee is not just a retelling of a classic story. Maguire discovers in the flowering of German Romanticism ties to Hellenic mystery-cults-- a fascination with death and the afterlife-- and ponders a profound question: How can a person who is abused by life, shortchanged and challenged, nevertheless access secrets that benefit the disadvantaged and powerless? Ultimately, Hiddensee offers a message of hope. If the compromised Godfather Drosselmeier can bring an enchanted Nutcracker to a young girl in distress on a dark winter evening, perhaps everyone, however lonely or marginalized, has something precious to share.

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