GREGORY MAGUIRE

The mind that brought us Wicked now invites us on a journey down the rabbit hole—literally. Gregory Maguire’s After Alice takes place on the same summer’s day as a certain other little girl’s adventures in Wonderland. And while, yes, After Alice also begins with a rabbit in a waistcoat, Maguire’s Ada is a heroine in her own right and has a (hallucinatory, wonderful, giddily magical) tale all her own to tell. WHAT IT’S ABOUT “It’s an homage to the 150th anniversary of the original publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in 1865. It’s meant to make you feel like you’ve gotten a letter from an old friend and your heart leaps up in joy at news from somebody you thought had been lost forever.” WHAT IT’S NOT “It’s not a retelling. It’s not a parody. It’s not ‘Alex in Tumblrland.’” WHAT INSPIRED IT “I have a photograph of Lewis Carroll in my study; it’s actually mentioned in After Alice, in the scene where Ada’s governess and Alice’s sister are out looking for the lost children and they come upon a man trying to take a photograph of himself. By putting him in the book, I’m kind of asking for his blessing and saying ‘You did not know how immortal you were making yourself when you told a story, and we can honour you because you have taught us a great deal—not just about the nature of childhood but indeed about the nature of consciousness, so here’s my little shrine to you.’” WHAT YOU’LL GET OUT OF IT “When Ada goes down the rabbit hole, her back brace that she wears to straighten her spine falls off, and when she finds it again, it no longer fits; it’s a bit too snug. This is my metaphor for how all experience, however insane, does make us bigger. Even a dream makes us bigger than we were when we went to sleep.”