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 #1 smash hit
movie 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?
