Bainbridge Island hasn’t seen anything like this since that boy wizard with the big black glasses.
Michael Wolff’s tell-all bestseller on the Trump presidency, “Fire and Fury: Inside the White House,” has been Amazon.com’s bestseller in print, e-book and audiobook since it was released last week.
Brick-and-mortar bookshops across the country quickly sold out of the book, as well. It had been expected to be released Tuesday by booksellers, but was published instead last Thursday after an attorney for President Trump sent a cease-and-desist letter to Wolff and his publisher, Henry Holt and Company.
On Bainbridge, the book also flew off the shelves into eagerly awaiting hands.
Tim Hunter, head buyer for Eagle Harbor Book Company, said the store has already sold 30 copies.
“There is a wait list that is, at the moment, about a dozen deep. We’ve backordered an additional 30, and may up it as interest dictates,” he said.
Hunter also said the publisher of “Fire and Fury” hasn’t yet said when it expects to have more copies of the book available.
The demand for “Fire and Fury” on Bainbridge is somewhat of a surprise.
“It’s rare for us to have that high of demand, of a single title on a single day,” Hunter said.
And while Hillary Clinton’s account of the 2016 Election, “What Happened,” was a bigger seller, it took time for that book to move many copies.
Hunter said the Winslow bookstore sold twice as many copies of Clinton’s book than the new Trump book, “but that was over the course of several months.”
“It’s rare for us to blaze through that many copies in one day.”
The store originally ordered six copies, but had more copies already on the way when publishers Henry Holt and Company moved up the release date.
Copies that arrived on Friday were quickly sold out, with the later arrivals going to fill pre-sold orders.
Hunter said the last book to create such a demand at the Bainbridge bookstore was “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” by J.K. Rowling.
Bainbridge is well-read, but interest in political novels varies.
Hunter said Bainbridge readers prefer dense tomes, and not ones more sensational in style.
“Katy Tur did pretty well for us,” Hunter said, referring to “Unbelievable,” written by the broadcast journalist for NBC and MSNBC who was the first embedded reporter on the Trump campaign.
Dan Rather’s “What Unites Us” was also popular for Bainbridge readers.
“Things that are a little bit less sensationalist tends to be our market,” Hunter said.
And the president’s review of “Fire and Fury”?
Trump on Twitter: “Michael Wolff is a total loser who made up stories in order to sell this really boring and untruthful book.”