Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I & II are set to be released as a book on July 31, a day after the play for which the new story was written will debut on stage in London. The original new story was written by authors JK Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany. Fans who cannot be in London to watch the play had appealed to Rowling and her team to be able to read the story in the form of a book, said David Shelley, the chief executive of publisher Little, Brown Book Group.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will pick up the story 19 years after Harry was seen seeing two of his children off to the Hogwarts school. It will feature Harry as a father and an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic. Previews of the play begin in May at London’s Palace Theatre. Both parts are scheduled to open on July 30. The script's e-book will be published along with the hardback editions, which go on sale a minute after midnight.