HANOI, Vietnam — Vietnam has fallen under Harry Potter's spell: Rave reviews met this week's publication of the communist country's first full-length version of a book in the popular series about the boy wizard.
"We've never had a storybook like this," said Quach Thu Nguyet of Youth Publishing House, based in Ho Chi Minh City, which published J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."
The book was first published here in September, but it was serialized in seven paperback parts and released over seven weeks. An eight-part version of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" came next.
Serializing the books was meant to make them affordable for children, particularly in poorer areas. Each part sells for about 35 cents.
The publisher decided on the full-length version when it discovered that reading forums on Harry Potter — a boy with magical gifts who faces the forces of evil along with boarding-school taunts and preadolescent crushes — were drawing nearly as many adults as children.
"Mondays are when the new books come out," said Nguyen Thi Thu, who runs a newsstand in Hanoi. "If they're not on time, people get very anxious. They're addicted to these books — and I'm not talking about the children."
More than 40,000 copies of the serialized versions have sold, making them the best-selling foreign books ever in Vietnam. The number would not be impressive in many countries, but in Vietnam the average pressrun for books is 2,000 copies.
"Harry is a kind of hero," said translator Ly Lan, who said she was responsible for bringing Harry Potter to Vietnam.
"He's a poor boy, an orphan who tries his best in hard circumstances. He has a good heart. He likes to protect people and fight against the dark forces. That's something that Vietnamese like very much."
After reading parts of the four-book series in the United States, Ly brought the books back to Vietnam, hoping to get a publisher interested.
Vietnamese publishers seldom take chances on foreign fiction because of generally low public interest and difficulties with the country's conservative censors.
"I think this was a test to see if the people and the government have an open mind to the West," Ly said. "I think we will sell 100,000 copies of the books soon."