Wicked [Movie Tie-In]

The New York Times bestseller and basis for the Tony Award-winning hit musical,soon to be a major motion picture starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. With millions of copies in print around the worldGregory Maguire’s Wicked is established not only as a commentary on our time but as a novel to revisit for years to come. Wicked relishes the inspired inventions of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novelThe Wonderful Wizard of Ozwhile playing sleight of hand with our collective memories of the 1939 MGM film starring Margaret Hamilton (and Judy Garland). In this fast-pacedfantastically realand supremely entertaining novelMaguire has populated the largely unknown world of Oz with the power of his own imagination. Years before Dorothy and her dog crash-landanother little girl makes her presence known in Oz. This girlElphabais born with emerald-green skin–no easy burden in a land as mean and poor as Ozwhere superstition and magic are not strong enough to explain or overcome the natural disasters of flood and famine. StillElphaba is smartand by the time she enters Shiz Universityshe becomes a member of a charmed circle of Oz’s most promising young citizens. But Elphaba’s Oz is no utopia. The Wizard’s secret police are everywhere. Animals–those creatures with voicessoulsand minds–are threatened with exile. Young Elphabagreen and wild and misunderstoodis determined to protect the Animals–even if it means combating the mysterious Wizardeven if it means risking her single chance at romance. Ever wiser in guilt and sorrowshe can find herself grateful when the world declares her a witch. And she can even make herself glad for that young girl from Kansas. Recognized as an iconoclastic tour de force on its initial publicationthe novel has inspired the blockbuster musical of the same name–one of the longest-running plays in Broadway history. Popularindeed. But while the novel’s distant cousins hail from the traditions of magical realismmythopoeic fantasyand sprawling nineteenth-century sagas of moral urgencyMaguire’s Wicked is as unique as its green-skinned witch.