in this muchanticipated third volume of the wicked years we return to oz seen now through the eyes of the cowardly lion the once tiny cub defended by elphaba in wicked while civil war looms a tetchy oracle named yackle prepares for death before her final hour an enigmatic figure known as brrr the cowardly lion arrives searching for information about elphaba thropp the wicked witch of the west as payment yackle demands some answers of her own brrr surrenders his story abandoned as a cub his earliest memories are gluey hazes and his lifes path is no yellow brick road a lion among men chronicles a battle of wits hastened by the emerald citys approaching armies at once a portrait of a wouldbe survivor and a panoramic glimpse of a world gone shrill with war fever gregory maguires new novel is written with the sympathy and power that have made his books contemporary classics