Preview
  • Hiddensee

  • A Tale of the Once and Future Nutcracker
  • By: Gregory Maguire
  • Narrated by: Steven Crossley
  • Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
  • 3.6 out of 5 stars (224 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Hiddensee

By: Gregory Maguire
Narrated by: Steven Crossley
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $22.49

Buy for $22.49

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

In this imaginative novel rooted in the rich soil of early 19th-century German Romanticism, beloved New York Times best-selling author Gregory Maguire twins an origin legend of the famous Nutcracker with the life of Drosselmeier, the toymaker who carves him.

Gregory Maguire's novels have been called "bewitching", "remarkable", "extraordinary", "engrossing", "amazing", and "delicious". Having brought his legions of devoted listeners to Oz in Wicked, Wonderland in After Alice, and Dickensian London in Lost, Maguire now takes us to the Black Forest of Bavaria and Munich of the Brothers Grimm and E. T. A. Hoffman.

Hiddensee recreates the backstory of the Nutcracker, reimaging how this entrancing creature came to be carved and how it magically guided an ailing little girl named Klara through a dreamy paradise on a snowy Christmas Eve. It also brings to life the mysterious godfather Drosselmeier - the ominous, canny, one-eyed toymaker made immortal by Petipa and Tchaikovsky's ballet - who presents the once and future Nutcracker to Klara, his goddaughter.

But Hiddensee is not just a retelling of a classic story. Maguire discovers in the flowering of German Romanticism a migrating strain of a Hellenic mystery-cult and ponders a profound question: how a person who is abused by life, short-changed, and challenged can access secrets that benefit the disadvantaged and powerless. Ultimately, Hiddensee offers a message of hope. If the compromised godfather Drosselmeier can bring an enchanted Nutcracker to a young girl in distress, perhaps everyone, however lonely or marginalized on the eve of a winter holiday, has something precious to share.

©2017 Gregory Maguire (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about Hiddensee

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    63
  • 4 Stars
    60
  • 3 Stars
    58
  • 2 Stars
    28
  • 1 Stars
    15
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    105
  • 4 Stars
    53
  • 3 Stars
    21
  • 2 Stars
    9
  • 1 Stars
    7
Story
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    57
  • 4 Stars
    42
  • 3 Stars
    49
  • 2 Stars
    28
  • 1 Stars
    21

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Enthralling!!!!!

Loved it! As usual, Gregory has made a fabulous story!! Never have I been unhappy with his writing!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Hidden see

This was enjoyable....a tale for adults. The ending made this long tale worth waiting for.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Disappointed

It was a great premise, but fell flat in the writing. There were interesting descriptions and turn of phrases at times, but the character development was so poor that the ideas were lost the last 15 to 20% of the book finally caught my attention as the toy maker Started to develop close relationships and the story came to a fruition.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A lovely Christmas time book

I love the imagination of the author. At times the book seems to drag on but it holds the reader’s interest to the end.
The narrator is superb.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Glad I stuck with it

I had a hard time connecting with the main character at first., and I was a little disappointed that there was less fantasy. I found myself wanting a little bit more like in many of his other novels. The story however was wonderful and all of the characters who grew on me in short order . My very favorite part of this story are the overlaps of Hiddensee and the nutcracker I know from my childhood.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Loved it!

I loved this story. Gregory McGuire is brilliant. So glad I found this writer! I am working my way through his library.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Not a Christmas Story

People kept telling me it was a great story with Christmas undertones. I severely question those people idea of Christmas and Good now. I kept hoping it would get better or at least the writer intentions would be revealed... just not my cup of tea, I guess.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A classic Christmas story with a twist

This book is a weird exception from the general rule - at least my general rule - of hooking the reader in the first 5 pages. I admit, it did not do that for me. I found it to be awkward and a bit too gloomy for my taste, but I kept reading and I am so glad I did! Because it turned out to be a magnificent experience, one that truly surprised me. It is quite philosophical and psychological but the plot and characters are also very engaging.

Hiddensee is a novel about many things: childhood (both traumatic and happy), growing up, love, hope, memory and dreams, and it digs deep into its character's souls. It is at heart a re-imagining of a classic Christmas story, just like the subtitle says: a tale of the once and future Nutcracker. Godfather Drosselmeier becomes the hero of this Bildungsroman, an origin story, if you will.

I felt like the novel followed the basic structure of a classical music piece, with themes repeating and developing over time until we reach the final the part, the Coda, where everything comes together and makes perfect sense.

Definitely worth reading!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Nutcracker's Drosselmeyer's Back Story

I really enjoyed listening to Steven Crossley read Gregory Maguire's Hiddensee. He did really well making the characters distinct for me, and even when I was reading the physical book without the audio, I could still hear the characters' voices in my head as I read along.

As for the story, it was very interesting. I have read other works by Gregory Maguire, and while this was not my favorite of his, I still liked how he gave the Nutcracker's Drosselmeyer a back story that starts from the dark forest of the Grimm Brothers' tales to becoming the godfather to Klara Stahlbaum.

I especially enjoyed learning of Drosselmeyer's time in the woods living with the Old Man and Old Woman, his meeting and time with Nastaran, and his time spent with Klara and Fritz. With these interactions, I felt you really got to know Dirk's inner thoughts and feelings. And while his story was a tragic one, it was a very nice read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

So so

Not my favorite book from him. At times it was hard to follow along, had to re-listen to parts of it twice.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!