Mirror Mirror

Description

a retelling of the Snow White story set in Renaissance Italy The world was called Monteflore, as far as she knew, and from her aerie on every side all the world descended. The year is 1502, and seven-year-old Blanca de Nevada lives perched high above the rolling hills and valleys of Tuscany and Umbria at Monteflore, the farm of her beloved father, Don Vicente. There she spends her days cosseted by Primavera Vecchia, the earthy cook, and Fra Ludovico, a priest who tends to their souls between bites of ham and sips of wine. But one day a noble entourage makes its way up the winding slopes to the farm - and the world comes to Monteflore. In the presence of Cesare Borgia and his sister, the lovely and vain Lucrezia - decadent children of a wicked pope - no one can claim innocence for very long. When Borgia sends Don Vicente on a years-long quest to reclaim a relic of the original Tree of Knowledge, he leaves Bianca under the care - so to speak - of Lucrezia. She plots a dire fate for the young girl in the woods below the farm, but in the dark forest there can be found salvation as well...A lyrical work of stunning creative vision, Mirror Mirror gives fresh life to the classic story of Snow White - and has a truth and beauty all its own.

Gregory Maguire's first three novels, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, and Lost have all appeared on bestseller lists worldwide and have earned him high praise and a solid literary readership. Wicked is the basis of the Broadway play of the same name.

"A brilliant achievement." -- Boston Herald "Wildly inventive...Maguire refreshes his source material capably...Every bit as good as Wicked: wicked good, in fact." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)