New Harry Potter Book will be released July 31

J.K. Rowling has confirmed that she will have a new Harry Potter book that is coming out July 31st 2016. It is the script for the new stage play that is opening up in the UK later this year. This will be the first new Harry Potter book published in more than eight years.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is set 19 years after her seventh, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, in which Harry and his friends Ron and Hermione save Hogwarts and the wizarding world from the dark magic of Lord Voldemort.

A description of the new volume reads: “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.

“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.”

Here is what we know about the new book.

1. It’s the eighth Harry Potter story.It’s a brand new story and it picks up where the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows epilogue left off

2. It’s all about Albus.The play will focus on father-of three Harry and his youngest son, Albus Severus

3. It’s not a prequel.Of this we can be absolutely sure. In June 2015 J.K. Rowling tweeted the fact three times in less than half an hour: “NOT a prequel. Not. A. Prequel.”

4. It’s at the Palace Theatre in London.Fun fact: The theatre is right by Charing Cross Road – where you can find The Leaky Cauldron in the Harry Potter stories

5. It’s a play in two parts.As explained on Pottermore: “Part One will only be half of the story, so the experience would be incomplete without seeing Part 2”. You can choose if you want to see both parts on the same day, or further apart

6. It will also be released as a book.The script (not a novel) will become available to fans at midnight on July 31 – Harry Potter’s birthday.

Michael Kozlowski

Editor-in-chief | michael@goodereader.com | Website | + posts

Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.