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THE magic of Harry Potter will cast its spell once more over fans of the fictional character with the release of a new publication.
Nine years after the last novel in the best-selling series about the boy wizard, what has been billed as the ‘epic 8th Harry Potter story’ is back with a twist.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I & II will be a script version of the upcoming, sold-out London play. The book will read like a play rather than a narrative novel.
The play, based on an idea by author JK Rowling, is set 19 years after her last best-seller featured the world of wizards, witches and plain old families, known as muggles.
“It features a grown-up Potter as an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic and father-of-three children who is grappling with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs,” US publishers Scholastic, UK publishers Little, Brown Book Group and global digital company Pottermore, said in a statement.
Charlie Richards, The Bookcase’s bookfair & special events manager, was one of the many Bahrain-based Potter fans delighted with the literary development. “You can imagine how excited we were to hear that there was going to be a new Potter adventure. However, this time we have been thrown a curve ball with the new title being released as a play,” she said.
“Considering this, you could ask, will serious die-hard Potter fans be put off by the fact that the book will be released as a script? Answer, not at all!
“It will certainly be an interesting take on a style that has hooked many generations over the years. Set 19 years after the end of the last book we are eager to see what waits in the shadows for our cherished characters and what new characters Rowling has hiding up her sleeve.
“We have followed Harry’s adventures with wonder and curiosity after the initial publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. So nine years on from the release of JK Rowling’s last Potter novel Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows we have dreamt of what was to come next.
“As Dumbledore humbly pointed out we must not dwell on our dreams and imagination. We should be making those dreams our reality, and that is exactly what Rowling, with the help of English playwright Jack Thorne and theatre director John Tiffany have done.
“As avid fans of the arts at The Bookcase we are looking forward to reading the script. She has done it again; Rowling will revolutionise story-telling for many more years to come.”
It will be released at 12.01am on Harry’s fictional birthday – July 31, 2016 and the day after the play opens in London.
David Shelley, chief executive of Little, Brown Book Group, said the script was being published due to public demand. “JK Rowling and her team have received a huge number of appeals from fans who can’t be in London to see the play and who would like to read the play in book format – and so we are absolutely delighted to be able to make it available for them,” he added.
Other Potter fans squealed with delight at the news. “On behalf of all ‘potter-heads’, thank you, thank you very much indeed. OMG I’m so happy,” tweeted Lazi.
The play, which stars Jamie Parker as Potter and actress Noma Dumezweni as an adult Hermione Granger, is already sold out through January 2017.
The play opens ahead of the much-anticipated November 2016 movie version of Rowling’s Potter spin-off book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, starring Eddie Redmayne, and the opening in April of a second Harry Potter attraction within a theme park, this time in the US at Universal Studios in Los Angeles.
More than 450 million copies of the seven original Harry Potter books have been sold worldwide in 79 languages. The movie franchise has grossed more than $7 billion worldwide.
‘It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children’ – according to the synopsis from the coming theatrical production.
At the end of the seventh book, after the defeat of ‘he who must not be named’, Rowling set up the foundations for the next chapter in Harry’s life in her epilogue.
We learned that while Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places …
