A lion among men

Description

'Hardly more than a kitten . . . I had thought to call it Prrr, but it shivers more often than it purrs, so I call it Brrr instead.' — From WickedSince Wicked was first published in 1995, millions of readers have discovered Gregory Maguire's fantastically encyclopedic Oz, a world filled with characters both familiar and new, darkly conceived and daringly reimagined. In the much-anticipated third volume of the Wicked Years, we return to Oz, seen now through the eyes of the Cowardly Lion — the once tiny cub defended by Elphaba in Wicked.While civil war looms in Oz, a tetchy oracle named Yackle prepares for death. Before her final hour, an enigmatic figure known as Brrr — the Cowardly Lion — arrives searching for 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.Brrr surrenders his story to the ailing maunt: Abandoned as a cub, his earliest memories are gluey hazes, and his path from infancy in the Great Gillikin Forest is no Yellow Brick Road. Seeking to redress an early mistake, he trudges through a swamp of ghosts, becomes implicated in a massacre of trolls, and falls in love with a forbidding Cat princess. In the wake of laws that oppress talking Animals, he avoids a jail sentence by agreeing to serve as a lackey to the war-mongering Emperor of Oz.A Lion Among Men chronicles a battle of wits hastened by the Emerald City's approaching armies. 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? And what of the Grimmerie, the magic book that vanished as quickly as Elphaba? 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?At once a portrait of a would-be survivor and a panoramic glimpse of a world gone shrill with war fever, Gregory Maguire's new novel is written with the sympathy and power that have made his books contemporary classics.

Description

In this third novel of the *New York Times*--Bestselling series, civil war looms in Oz, and an ancient oracle named Yackle prepares for death. But before she can die, the Cowardly Lion arrives seeking knowledge about Elphaba Thropp, the Wicked Witch of the West--the woman who had defended him when he was a cub.

Subjects

Genres

• Fiction

Other Editions

• A lion among menWilliam Morrow2008-01-01
• A Lion Among MenElectronic resourceHarperCollins2008-01-01
• Lion among MenHarperCollins Publishers2008-01-01
• Lion among MenHarperCollins Publishers2008-01-01
• Lion among MenHarperCollins Publishers2008-01-01
• A lion among menHeadline Review2008-01-01