With fans around the world having waited almost two decades for Philip Pullman’s highly anticipated sequel to the His Dark Materials trilogy, a few lucky Dutch readers may have got their hands on copies of La Belle Sauvage two weeks early – before the novel was promptly recalled across the Netherlands.

La Belle Sauvage, the first in Pullman’s The Book of Dust trilogy, has a worldwide release date of 19 October. But Dutch publisher Uitgeverij Prometheus sent out copies of the long-awaited novel, translated as Het boek van Stof, to bookshops across the Netherlands last week, and lists a release date of 4 October on its website.

One Twitter user brought the early release to Pullman’s attention. He replied: “Is it? First I’d heard … Shouldn’t have happened.”

This is so odd! Why is the Dutch version of Belle Sauvage released earlier than the original version?! @PhilipPullman pic.twitter.com/IOqSzkBlaL — Kimberly Camu (@kcamu) October 5, 2017

On Friday, Caradoc King, Pullman’s agent, told the Guardian: “There are many plans to celebrate the publication of La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust Volume One across the world, and we want to ensure that the book is made available to all fans at the same time on the global publication date of 19 October, so as not to spoil the surprise.

“We are aware that some copies of the Dutch edition have been made available in Holland and action has been taken to recall these immediately.”

“All copies have been removed,” said Job Lisman, editor at Prometheus, adding that as far as he knew, no copies had been sold.

Pullman ended years of speculation in February when he announced that he was finally publishing The Book of Dust, 17 years after the final instalment of his classic trilogy. The new books will span a period from the birth of his hero Lyra, to 10 years after the previous trilogy’s conclusion, and have been dubbed by Pullman an “equel” rather than a prequel or sequel.

The three books of His Dark Materials – Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass – were global bestsellers, shifting more than 17.5m copies worldwide. The books have been translated into 40 languages and adapted for film and stage, with a BBC TV adaptation due in late 2017.