Confessions of an ugly stepsister / by Gregory Maguire ; illustrations by Bill Sanderson.

Prologue: Stories painted on porcelain -- Obscure child -- Marketplace -- Stories told through windows -- Looking -- Meadow -- Sitting for Schoonmaker -- Girl with wildflowers -- Half a door -- Van den Meer's household -- Imp-riddled house -- Small room of outside -- Small oils -- Masterpiece -- Rue, sage, thyme, and temper -- Reception -- Virginal -- Simples -- Girl of ashes -- Flowers for the dead -- Plague and quarantine -- Nowhere windmill -- Invitations -- Fair light on a full table -- wind and tide -- Girl of ashes -- Finery -- Spine and chamber -- Collapses -- Gallery of God's mistakes -- Campaigns -- Gallery of God's mistakes -- Cinderella -- Van Stolk and van Antum -- Night before the ball -- Changeling -- Small magic -- Tulip and turnips -- Ball -- Medici ball -- Clarissa of Aragon -- Midnight -- Most unholy night -- Second slipper -- Epilogue: Stories written in oils.

From Gregory Maguire, the acclaimed author of Wicked, comes his much-anticipated second novel, a brilliant and provocative retelling of the timeless Cinderella tale. 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? Set against the rich backdrop of seventeenth-century Holland, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister tells the story of Iris, an unlikely heroine who finds herself swept from the lowly streets of Haarlem to a strange world of wealth, artifice, and ambition. Iris's path quickly becomes intertwined with that of Clara, the mysterious and unnaturally beautiful girl destined to become her sister. While Clara retreats to the cinders of the family hearth, burning all memories of her past, Iris seeks out the shadowy secrets of her new household--and the treacherous truth of her former life. Far more than a mere fairy-tale, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister is a novel of beauty and betrayal, illusion and understanding, reminding us that deception can be unearthed--and love unveiled--in the most unexpected of places.