New York Times Bestseller What happened to young Elphaba before her witchy powers took hold in
Wicked ? Almost 30 years after the publication of the original novel Gregory Maguire reveals
the story of prickly young Elphie the future Wicked Witch of the West—setting the stage for
the blockbuster international phenomenon that is Wicked : The Musical and the Wicked smash hit
movie series. Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West will grow to have a feisty and somewhat
uncompromising character in adult life. But she is always a one-off from her infancy Elphie
is the riveting coming-of-age story of a very peculiar and relatable young girl. Young Elphie
is shaped and molded by the behaviors of her promiscuous mother Melena and her pious father
Frex. She suffers ordinary childhood jealousies when her sister saintly Nessarose and brother
junior felon Shell arrive. She first encounters the mistreatment of the Animal populations of
Oz which live adjacent to but not intertwined with human settlements haunted by a Monkey and
receiving aid from Dwarf Bears. She thrashes through her first bruising attempts at friendship
a possible lifeline from her tricky family life. And she gleans the benefits of an education
haphazard though it must be—until she arrives at the doors of Shiz University about to meet
the radiant creature that is Galinda. Elphie is destined to be a witch she bears the markings
from childhood—most evidently in her green skin but more obscurely and profoundly in her
cunning and perhaps amoral behaviors as she seeks to make do to slip by to sneak out to
endure and to aspire.
