Is this new land a place where magics really happen?From Gregory Maguire, the acclaimed author ofWicked,comes his much-anticipated second novel, a brilliant and provocative retelling of the timeless Cinderella tale.In the lives of children, pumpkins can turn into coaches, mice and rats into human beings.... When we grow up, we learn that it's far more common for human beings to turn into rats....We all have heard the story of Cinderella, the beautiful child cast out to slave among the ashes. But what of her stepsisters, the homely pair exiled into ignominy by the fame of their lovely sibling? What fate befell those untouched by beauty . . . and what curses accompanied Cinderella's exquisite looks?Extreme beauty is an afflictionSet against the rich backdrop of seventeenth-century Holland,Confessions of an Ugly Stepsistertells the story of Iris, an unlikely heroine who finds herself swept from the lowly...