Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong, and for all you wicked heads out there,

we've got an early Christmas gift for you. It's an interview with Gregory McGuire, who, yes,

wrote Wicked and all the various spinoffs, but back in 2017, he took a different fantastical tale

and added some backstory to it, The Nutcracker. The resulting book was titled

Hiddency, and he spoke to former NPR host Lulu Garcia Navarro back when it came out,

and he talked about what attracts him to children's stories as an adult and how remembering

the magic of childhood can help us navigate our adult lives with our adults' problems.

That's ahead.

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It's that time of year, sugarplum fairies, dancing and delight, the mouse king, a gorgeous

Christmas party, and a prince. The Nutcracker Ballet is a beloved holiday perennial,

but the new novel Hidden Sea, which is based on the Nutcracker tale, is not exactly meant for the kiddos.

It tells the backstory of the powerful toy maker, Her Drosselmeyer, who gives the Nutcracker to Clara.

Gregory McGuire, author of Wicked, among other bestsellers, is the author, and he joins us now from WGBH in Boston. Welcome to the program.

Thank you so much. I'm delighted to be here. How did you first encounter the tale of the Nutcracker?

Well, like most Americans, maybe people around the world, I saw the ballet. Indeed, I saw it live, I believe, at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

And one of the things that captivated me about it was that scene where the Christmas tree grows 40, 50, 60 feet high.

And that seemed to be one of the most magical transformations I've ever seen on the stage, even if the rest of the story seemed to me demented.

Demented.

...