A Lion Among Men was published by William Morrow in 2008, the third volume of what Maguire called “The Wicked Years.” The novel tells the life story of Brrr — the Cowardly Lion of Baum’s original — reimagined as a talking Animal (one of the sentient, speaking creatures whose rights are being systematically stripped in Maguire’s Oz) who has been shaped by trauma, political persecution, and his own inadequacy into the “coward” Dorothy will eventually meet on the Yellow Brick Road.
Brrr’s story is told in retrospect, as he sits in a courtroom awaiting trial on charges related to the ongoing political crisis. His narrative moves between past and present: the cub separated from his family during the Animal persecutions, the young lion trying to survive in a world that treats him as either a pet or a threat, the adult lion making compromises with power in order to stay alive. His “cowardice” is reframed as the rational response of a vulnerable creature in a dangerous world — not a moral failing but a survival strategy.
The novel is the darkest and most fragmented of the Wicked Years — Maguire’s Oz has descended into civil war, and the political allegory (displacement, refugee crises, ethnic persecution) is more explicit than in the earlier volumes. Brrr’s story offers no easy redemption: courage, Maguire suggests, is not a permanent quality but something that must be chosen again and again, in specific circumstances, at specific costs.
Collecting A Lion Among Men
First edition (William Morrow, New York, 2008): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $10–$30
- Without jacket: $5–$10