GERMANY: Final book in Harry Potter series goes on sale in Germany

German Potter fans finally get to find out if their young hero survives in the 7th and final Harry Potter book. The seventh and final volume in the Harry Potter series went on sale in German on Friday (October 26). Hundreds of Potter fans queued in book stores in the German capital, Berlin, to get hold of the book, which answers the questions on every reader's lips -- 'Who dies at the end?' and in particular, 'Does Harry survive?' "With the 6th book I was already thinking, oh no, it will soon be over, so with the 7th book I will really be thinking oh no, oh no, but I can still listen to them," one fan, Rachel Ulrich said. "Half of me will be laughing and half of me will be crying, but both at the same time, that isn't possible," another fan, Antonia, said. According to its publishers it is the fastest selling book in history, with more than 11 million copies sold during the first 24 hours in three markets alone when it was first released. U.S. sales of the eagerly awaited "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" hit 8.3 million, comfortably beating the previous Potter instalment, which posted sales of 6.9 million copies in the first day, U.S. publisher Scholastic say. In Britain, Bloomsbury sold a record 2.7 million copies of the final Potter book in the first 24 hours, up from 2.0 million for "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince". "It is selling wonderfully as you see," said the managing director of the Dussmann bookstore in Berlin, Hartwig Schulte-Loh. "The fans think it is totally great, Harry Potter is cult." Dussmann had a special Harry-Potter evening for fans, entertaining them with magic tricks while they queued for the long-awaited books. Reviews of "Deathly Hallows" have been almost universally glowing, noting the darker tone of book in which several characters die. Critical reaction to the previous six Potter tales, which sold 325 million copies worldwide, has been mixed. But the author JK Rowling, 41, is likely to see her fortune swell further over the coming years. She is estimated to be worth 545 million pounds (1.12 billion U.S. dollars) already, making her the first dollar-billionaire author. Some believe that the epilogue at the end of book seven means there is "no possible return" for the Harry Potter saga, although others are more fatalistic about it being the last book. "I'll be a bit sad, because it is the last book, and they were nice books," said Lara Terhardt. "It's quite dumb actually," said eight-year-old Levi Stiehl.

ITN Source | October 29, 2007

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