A wild winter swan : a novel /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

After brilliantly reimagining the worlds of Oz, Wonderland, Dickensian London, and the Nutcracker, the New York Times bestselling author of Wicked turns his unconventional genius to Hans Christian Andersen's "The Wild Swans," transforming this classic tale into an Italian-American girl's poignant coming-of-age story, set amid the magic of Christmas in 1960s New York.



Following her brother's death and her mother's emotional breakdown, Laura now lives on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, in a lonely townhouse she shares with her old-world, strict, often querulous grandparents. But the arrangement may be temporary. The quiet, awkward teenager has been getting into trouble at home and has been expelled from her high school for throwing a record album at a popular girl who bullied her. When Christmas is over and the new year begins, Laura may find herself at boarding school in Montreal.

Nearly unmoored from reality through her panic and submerged grief, Laura is startled when a handsome swan boy with only one wing lands on her roof. Hiding him from her ever-bickering grandparents, Laura tries to build the swan boy a wing so he can fly home. But the task is too difficult to accomplish herself. Little does Laura know that her struggle to find help for her new friend parallels that of her grandparents, who are desperate for a distant relative's financial aid to save the family store.

As he explores themes of class, isolation, family, and the dangerous yearning to be saved by a power greater than ourselves, Gregory Maguire conjures a haunting, beautiful tale of magical realism that illuminates one young woman's heartbreak and hope as she begins the inevitable journey to adulthood.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

After Oz, Wonderland, and the swirling worlds of Dickensian London and E.T.A. Hoffman's The Nutcracker, Maguire transfigures Hans Christian Andersen's "The Wild Swans," here retold as the story of an Italian American girl named Laura living with her starchy grandparents on Manhattan's Upper East Side in the 1960s. As she frets that she will be sent to boarding school after Christmas, a handsome boy with one swan wing appears on her roof. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

Publishers Weekly Review

Maguire (Wicked) continues his fabulist fairy tale remixes with this enchanting story, which draws inspiration from the Hans Christian Andersen tale "The Wild Swans." In the original, a sister saves her seven brothers from the curse of living as swans by sewing them magical shirts; one brother's shirt isn't quite finished, and he ends up with a swan wing instead of an arm. Maguire brings this tale to New York City in 1962, where 15-year-old Laura Ciardi is preparing for an important Christmas Eve dinner in the brownstone where she lives with her Italian immigrant grandparents. Between troubles at school, the looming dread of attending a new boarding school in Canada, the expectations of her grandparents, and worries about her absent mother, Laura doesn't really have time to deal with the boy who crash lands in her bedroom with one huge swan wing for a left arm. But this new challenge turns out to be exactly what Laura needs to find courage to begin moving forward in her own life. Maguire parallels the swan boy's story of brokenness to Laura's own struggles overcoming class and cultural differences. Fans of Maguire's retellings will love this simple, elegant story. (Oct.)Correction: The publisher listed on a previous version of this review was incorrect.

Booklist Review

In his newest variation on a classic tale, following his take on the Nutcracker, Hiddensee (2017), Maguire offers a sort-of sequel to Hans Christian Anderson's "The Wild Swans," setting his fairy tale in the 1960s and adding new facets of wonder to New York City at Christmastime. Raised by her stern Italian grandparents, Laura Ciardi is a lonely 15-year-old recently expelled after retaliating against a school bully. Her main company is their cook, the delightful Mary Bernice, and two friendly workmen repairing the family brownstone before a big holiday feast. There, Laura's grandparents hope to entice their rich Irish brother-in-law into investing in their grocery, while Laura wants a guardian angel to rescue her from potential boarding school. Instead, appearing on the roof one stormy night is a dirty, bedraggled young man with a swan's wing for an arm. Hilarity and awkwardness ensue as Laura tries to care for him and build him another wing without anyone noticing. Sensitive depictions of generational and coming-of-age conflicts intertwine with whimsy as Maguire touchingly shows how people invoke stories to help elucidate their complicated world.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Gregory Maguire was born June 9, 1954 in Albany, New York. He received a B.A. from the State University of New York at Albany and a Ph.D. in English and American literature from Tufts University. He is a founder and co-director of Children's Literature New England, Incorporated, a non-profit educational charity established in 1987.

He writes for both adults and children. His first book, The Lighting Time, was published in 1978. His adult works include Wicked, Confessions of and Ugly Stepsister, Lost, Mirror Mirror, Son of a Witch, and A Lion Among Men. The Broadway play Wicked is based on his book of the same title. His children's books include the picture book Crabby Cratchitt, the novel The Good Liar, and the Hamlet Chronicles series.

(Bowker Author Biography)