Ukrainian Potter comes first

Inan attempt to win over extra readers, the A-Ba-Ba-Ha-La-Ma-Ha publishing house once released “Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix” – the fifth installment in the famous series – considerably earlier than Russian publishers, which made the book an absolute bestseller in Ukraine. The same thing happened with the sixth novel.

But with the latest seventh and final installment, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” Ukrainian publishers literally beat everyone, having officially released the Ukrainian translation of the book on Sept. 25, which made it the very first translation of the book to be released in a foreign language in the whole world.

On Sept. 21, the editor-in-chief of A-Ba-Ba-Ha-La-Ma-Ha publishing house, Ivan Malkovych, claimed that the London office of J.K. Rowling confirmed that the Ukrainian translation of the book, dubbed “Harry Potter ta Smertelni Relikviyi,” will be the first one to be released in the world.

The Ukrainian version was created by the old team that worked on the previous six novels, with the translation by Vitaliy Morozov, editing by Oleksa Nehrebetskiy and Ivan Malkovych, and cover design by Vladislav Erka.

By the time of the official release of the original “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” which took place July 21, the hysteria surrounding the adventures of the wizard boy had reached its peak. The book has topped the best sellers list since February, after the release date was first announced, and Rowling herself didn’t hesitate to add fuel to the fire, now and then suggesting that she might decide to kill off Harry Potter in the seventh book, or that she was thinking about writing the eighth novel after all – both declarations clearly contradicting each other.

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But as soon as readers were able to get their hands on the latest book, they realized the pronouncements were nothing but PR – not only was Harry not going to die, but the chapter named “19 years later” destroyed all hopes for a sequel.