Harry Potter is casting a spell, again, over the publishing industry.
Nine years after the publication of the seventh and last book in the best-selling boy wizard series, pre-orders for the script of a new, sold-out London play is the most pre-ordered book since 2007 in the United States, retail book sellers Barnes & Noble said on Monday.
“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” is billed as the eighth story in the Harry Potter series and is to be published at midnight on July 31. A script rather than a narrative novel, it is being published a day after the official opening of the London stage production of the same name.
The play, based on an idea by British author and Potter creator J.K. Rowling, is set 19 years after “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” It features a grown-up Potter as an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic and father of three children who is grappling with his past.
Barnes and Noble said in a statement that “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” was the US company’s most pre-ordered book since 2007’s “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” - the final book in the original series.