Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is a fantasy novel written by British author J. K. Rowling and the seventh and final novel in the Harry Potter series. It was released on 21 July 2007 in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury Publishing, in the United States by Scholastic, and in Canada by Raincoast Books. The novel chronicles the events directly following Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005) and the final confrontation between the wizards Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort. Deathly Hallows shattered sales records upon release, surpassing marks set by previous titles of the Harry Potter series. It holds the Guinness World Record for most novels sold within 24 hours of release, with 8.3 million sold in the US and 2.65 million in the UK. Reception to the book was generally positive, and the book won the 2008 Colorado Blue Spruce Book Award, and the American Library Association named it the "Best Book for Young Adults". A play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, was written by Jack Thorne, and based on an original story written by J. K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Thorne, premiering at the Palace Theatre in London on 30 July 2016. Rowling has referred to the play as "the eighth Harry Potter story", and is set nineteen years after the events of the Deathly Hallows, effectively picking up where the epilogue of the seventh book ended. A film adaptation of the novel was released in two parts: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 in November 2010 and Part 2 in July 2011. Source: Wikipedia (en)