“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” is what many are calling the eighth story in the Harry Potter series. Though, to those who haven’t been awaiting the release for months (years?), it’s not quite the book one would expect. Released in the U.S. last Sunday, the story is actually a published version of a two-part stage play written by Jack Thorne, based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Thorne and John Tiffany.
The play is currently being performed in the London Palace Theatre. However, for those who can’t make the trip overseas to witness the story, it’s been brought to life in a published book. “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” picks up 19 years after “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” leaves off. Potter is now an overworked Ministry of Magic employee, a husband and a father of three school-age children.
As with any Harry Potter story, the possibility for spoilers abounds. Thankfully, if you haven’t fallen too far down the Internet rabbit hole, you have been able to keep yourself away from any plot giveaways. Even on www.harrypottertheplay.com, J.K. Rowling herself encourages readers and viewers to #KeepTheSecrets. She asks readers one more time to keep the secrets and let audiences enjoy the surprises that have been built into the story.
So with that, I will end this column and let you enjoy the story for yourself!
Reserve your copy today at your local Delaware County District Library branch or at www.delawarelibrary.org.
While you’re there, see other new stories worth reading:
• “American Heiress” by Jeffrey Toobin. An account of the sensational 1974 kidnapping and trial of Patty Hearst describes the efforts of her family to secure her release, Hearst’s baffling participation in a bank robbery, and the psychological insights that prompted modern understandings about Stockholm syndrome.
• “The Big Thing” by Phyllis Korkki. A New York Times business journalist explains the importance of pursuing larger-scale creative projects, drawing on personal experience to identify both the obstacles and productive habits that emerge on the path to completion.
• “The Book That Matters Most” by Ann Hood. Joining a reading group in the wake of a failed marriage, Ava rediscovers a book from her childhood that helped her through past difficulties, while her daughter, Maggie, descends into a destructive relationship with a man in Paris.
• “The Nix” by Nathan Hill. Astonished to see the mother who abandoned him in childhood throwing rocks at a presidential candidate, a bored college professor struggles to reconcile the media depictions of his mother with his memories and decides to draw her out by penning a tell-all biography.
• “The Kingdom of Speech” by Tom Wolfe. Taking readers on a rollicking ride through history, a master storyteller and reporter, whose legend began in journalism, presents a paradigm-shifting argument that speech – not evolution – is responsible for humanity’s complex societies and achievements.
