“Your childhood," said Yackle coaxingly, as if she could smell his thoughts. As if she could sniff out those passages he hadn't chosen to retail at drink parties. Her words lulled him. The past, even a bitter past, is usually more pungent than the present, or at least better organized in the mind.”

American novelist

Gregory Maguire is an American novelist, known for Wicked, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, and many other books for adults and children. His work is closely associated with retellings and reimaginings of familiar stories. He published his first novel, The Lightning Time, in 1978. Wicked, published in 1995, was his first novel for adults and later became the basis for a popular Broadway musical in 2003, which was then adapted into a two-part musical film series.