'Hiddensee: A Tale of the Once and Future Nutcracker' by Gregory Maguire is a unique and engaging retelling of the classic Nutcracker story. The book delves into the backstory of the Nutcracker, exploring the life journey and experiences of a young Drosselmeyer before his encounters with the Staulbauhm family. Maguire's writing style is described as complex, slightly dark, yet hopeful and whimsical, filled with beautiful language and authentic German elements that add depth to the narrative.
The novel provides a rich expansion of the Nutcracker tale, offering detailed and insightful descriptions while exploring themes of lost childhoods, imaginations, and allegories for dangers to body and soul. Maguire seamlessly weaves together elements of 19th-century Bavaria, German Romanticism, and fairy tales, creating a narrative that immerses readers in a world of grief, longing, and restrained feelings. The book is praised for its ability to give readers a peek behind the scenes of the life that led to the creation of the Nutcracker story, making it a compelling and thought-provoking read.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Medium content warnings for themes of grief, sexuality, and complex family relationships.
Has Romance?
The book includes elements of romance that are intertwined with themes of identity and self-exploration.
From The Publisher:
The author of the beloved New York Times bestseller Wicked returns with an inventive novel inspired by a timeless holiday legend, intertwining the story of the famous Nutcracker with the life of the mysterious toy maker named Drosselmeier who carves him.
Hiddensee: An island of white sandy beaches, salt marshes, steep cliffs, and pine forests north of Berlin in the Baltic Sea, an island that is an enchanting bohemian retreat and home to a large artists' colony- a wellspring of inspiration for the Romantic imagination . . .
Having brought his legions of devoted readers to Oz in Wicked and to Wonderland in After Alice, Maguire now takes us to the realms of the Brothers Grimm and E. T. A. Hoffmann- the enchanted Black Forest of Bavaria and the salons of Munich. Hiddensee imagines the backstory of the Nutcracker, revealing how this entrancing creature came to be carved and how he guided an ailing girl named Klara through a dreamy paradise on a Christmas Eve. At the heart of Hoffmann's mysterious tale hovers Godfather Drosselmeier- the ominous, canny, one-eyed toy maker made immortal by Petipa and Tchaikovsky's fairy tale ballet- who presents the once and future Nutcracker to Klara, his goddaughter.
But Hiddensee is not just a retelling of a classic story. Maguire discovers in the flowering of German Romanticism ties to Hellenic mystery-cults- a fascination with death and the afterlife- and ponders a profound question: How can a person who is abused by life, shortchanged and challenged, nevertheless access secrets that benefit the disadvantaged and powerless? Ultimately, Hiddensee offers a message of hope. If the compromised Godfather Drosselmeier can bring an enchanted Nutcracker to a young girl in distress on a dark winter evening, perhaps everyone, however lonely or marginalized, has something precious to share.
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