Son of a Witch was published by ReganBooks/HarperCollins in 2005, a decade after Wicked and two years after the musical’s premiere made Maguire’s reimagined Oz a global phenomenon. The novel picks up after Elphaba’s death (melted by Dorothy’s water) and follows Liir — a young man who lived in Elphaba’s household but whose parentage is uncertain — as he tries to make sense of who he is and what he owes to Elphaba’s legacy.
Liir is a less compelling protagonist than Elphaba — he is passive where she was fierce, uncertain where she was committed — but this is deliberate. Maguire is interested in what happens after the revolutionary dies: how do the survivors carry on the work? How does the next generation inherit a political struggle it did not choose? Liir’s uncertainty about his own identity (is he really Elphaba’s son? does it matter?) mirrors his uncertainty about his political role.
The Oz of this novel is in transition: the Wizard has fled, but the power structures he created remain intact. The Animals are still oppressed; the bureaucracy still functions; new tyrants are emerging. Maguire’s political vision is bleaker than in Wicked: overthrowing a dictator does not automatically produce justice; systems of oppression survive the individuals who create them.
Collecting Son of a Witch
First edition (ReganBooks/HarperCollins, New York, 2005): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $15–$40
- Without jacket: $5–$10