The seventh and final book in the phenomenally bestselling Harry Potter series. In this thrilling climax to the Harry Potter series J.K. Rowling reveals all to her eagerly awaiting readers. Now available in paperback.

Joanne K. Rowling, geboren 1965, hatte schon als Kind den Wunsch, Schriftstellerin zu werden. 1983 studierte sie Französisch und Altphilologie. Während einer Zugfahrt erfand sie 1990 die Romanfigur Harry Potter. 1991 ging Rowling nach Portugal. In dieser Zeit arbeitete sie viel am ersten ihrer geplanten sieben Harry-Potter-Bücher. 1992 Heirat, die Ehe währte jedoch nur kurz - 1993 Geburt der Tochter Jessica. Rowling ging nach Großbritannien zurück. Als allein erziehende Mutter lebte sie zunächst von Sozialhilfe.

1997 wurde "Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen" veröffentlicht. Nur drei Tage danach ersteigerte der US-Verlag Scholastic überraschend die amerikanischen Rechte. 2000 verkaufte Rowling alle Vermarktungsrechte einschließlich der Filmrechte, behielt jedoch die Verlagsrechte sowie ein Mitspracherecht bei den Filmen. 2001 heiratete Rowling den Arzt Neil Murray mit dem sie 2 Kinder hat. Bis heute wurden ihre Harry-Potter-Romane in mehr als 60 Sprachen übersetzt.

The student wizard with the lightning-bolt scar sure has grown up during his time at Hogwarts.

Harry Potter, who over the years has faced the mystery of the sorcerer's stone, learned the truth about the prisoner of Azkaban and received instructions from the Goblet of Fire, will be entering even more dangerous territory in the upcoming seventh and final installment of the best-selling fantasy series.

At least according to the title J.K. Rowling has come up with.

The British author announced via a brainteaser on her Website Wednesday that the title of her latest novel will be Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Visitors to the site are instructed to click on a series of items, starting with an eraser and ending up at a wrapped gift box, to get to a hangman puzzle that eventually reveals the title.

And no, the book's somber heading is not meant to throw readers off the scent of a neat and tidy ending. Rowling is still planning to kill off two main characters, though she of course refuses to comment on speculation that Harry himself will be meeting his maker.

"The long lack of updates has been due to some very hard work," the 10th-richest woman in Britain - thanks to Harry Potter - wrote on her Website Tuesday. "I'm now writing scenes that have been planned, in some cases, for a dozen years or even more."

In June, however, Rowling said that the ensuing character deaths were not part of her original grand design.

"One character got a reprieve but I have to say that two die that I didn't intend to die," she said on the U.K.'s Richard & Judy talk show.

"I don't think anyone who has not been in a similar situation can possibly know how this feels: I am alternately elated and overwrought," Rowling wrote Tuesday. "I both want, and don't want, to finish this book (don't worry, I will)."

The writer's sentiments echo those of her millions of fans, who both want, and don't want to see the Harry Potter saga come to an end.

Booksellers are pretty psyched, actually, although it's always a time for industry-wide celebration whenever a new Potter novel comes out.

"The book's release will be met with an unprecedented level of excitement," Kes Nielsen, head of book buying for Amazon.com, told Bloomberg.com. "Over the past 10 years, so many people have been enchanted by the world and characters that J.K. Rowling created."

Big-box retailer Borders Inc. said that it started a waiting list for the then-untitled Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on Dec. 8, although no publication date has been set yet.

Book number six, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, sold 2 million copies in the U.K. in its first 24 hours on (or should we say, flying off) the shelves. Worldwide sales of the series have totaled more than 650 million.

The four film adaptations have already grossed more than $3.5 billion worldwide, with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix slated for a July 13 release.

All of Rowling's hard work, in addition to having obviously paid off, is also starting to infiltrate her dreams. And not just the ones where she's envisioning being able to retire to a private island and never have to work again.

"For years now, people have asked me whether I ever dream that I am in 'Harry's world,'" she wrote this week. "The answer was 'no' until a few nights ago when I had an epic dream in which I was, simultaneously, Harry and the narrator.

As Harry, "I was searching for a giant Horcrux in a gigantic, crowded hall, which bore no resemblance to the Great Hall as I imagine it¿Meanwhile, waiters and waitresses who work in the real café in which I have written huge parts of book seven roamed around me as though on stilts, all of them at least fifteen feet high.

"Perhaps I should cut back on the caffeine?"

The café Rowling mentioned is in Edinburgh, where she has one of her three residences, all of which probably have really Great Halls.

And for all you Muggles out there, a horcrux is a dastardly device, obtainable only by using the Dark Arts, that can render a wizard immortal by hiding a part of his or her soul.
Source: eonline.com