The Next Queen of Heaven
by Gregory Maguire
Fiction / 347 pages / Paperback
Harper Paperbacks / October, 2010

Dear Reader,

Behold, I bring unto thee tidings of great joy. This very month, in the town of Manhattan, is brought forth for thee a book, and its name shall be called The Next Queen of Heaven. You shall find it wrapped in paper covers -- a bargain! -- and laid on the Original Paperback Fiction table at your finest shops for books. And it is not sacrilegious at all. Far from it.

This book comes to light in a curious fashion. More than a year ago I was asked by the Concord Free Press to donate a manuscript in a venture described as "generosity-based publishing."(Check them out at concordfreepress.com for the whole lowdown.) I was intrigued about this way to raise money for readers' individual favorite causes. I presented a book that breaks the mold from that for which I am best known (the literary fantasy novel for adults, Wicked being the most popu-lar). This season, the book is out in a commercial paperback edition from HarperCollins.

What emerged from my keyboard was a story that draws on my own experience growing up in upstate New York, with its fierce and lovely provincialism, its own brand of religious tolerance and intolerance. I set the story just before the year 2000 because I wanted to consider Christian ideology in the light of millennial anxiety and before such matters were affected both by the rising anti-Islamic sentiment following 9-11 and also the rising anti-Catholic sentiment due to the sex abuse scandals. So the story takes place only a decade ago. But that feels, to me, about forty years ago. Does it to you?

The Next Queen of Heaven is a romp, a farce, but its central thesis is that even the most depraved of us are worthy of salvation -- indeed, were that not true, salvation wouldn't deserve much street cred. So I hope you find the book and cherish it. And let there be peace on earth, good will to men and women of all creeds and credit ratings.

Gregory Maguire