The Concord Bookshop - Established 1940

In the spirit of A. S. Byatt's Possession, with dark echoing overtones of A Christmas Carol, Lost presents a rich fictional world that will enrapture its readers.

When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum's classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil?

Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first-class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle-class stability, and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And then there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to be the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, a smart, prickly, and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil.

In Mirror, Mirror, Snow White is Bianca de Nevada, born on a farm in Tuscany in 1495. When the duplicitous Cesare Borgia orders her father to go on a quest to reclaim the relic of the original Tree of Knowledge, Bianca is left in the care of her father's farm staff and the beautiful, madly vain Lucrecia Borgia, Cesare's sister. But Lucrecia becomes jealous of her lecherous brother's interest in the growing child and plots a dire fate for Bianca in the woods below the farm. There Bianca finds herself in the home of seven dwarves- creators of the magic mirror -who await the return of their brother, the eighth dwarf, long gone on a quest of his own.

In the evocative style of Maguire's earlier novels, Mirror, Mirror is a fresh, compelling take on a beloved classic tale.