The Casual Vacancy - Hardcover

Praise for THE CASUAL VACANCY:

"A positively propulsive read."-- Wall Street Journal

"I had come under the spell of a great novel....A big, ambitious, brilliant, profane, funny, deeply upsetting and magnificently eloquent novel of contemporary England, rich with literary intelligence....This is a deeply moving book by somebody who understands both human beings and novels very, very deeply." Lev Grossman, "Time""

"A vivid read with great, memorable characters and a truly emotional payoff....Rowling captures the humanity in everyone, even if that humanity is not always a pretty sight." "People"""

"This book represents a truckload of shrewdness.... There were sentences I underlined for the sheer purpose of figuring out how English words could be combined so delightfully....genuinely moving." "Washington Post""

"A positively propulsive read." "Wall Street Journal""

"An insanely compelling page-turner....The Casual Vacancy" is a comedy, but a comedy of the blackest sort, etched with acid and drawn with pitch....Rowling proves ever dexterous at launching multiple plot lines that roar along simultaneously, never entangling them except when she means to. She did not become the world's bestselling author by accident. She knows down in her bones how to make you keep turning the pages." "The Daily Beast""

"Rowling knows how to write a twisty, involving plot....She is clearly a skilled writer." "The Huffington Post""

"The Casual Vacancy" is a complete joy to read....a stunning, brilliant, outrageously gripping and entertaining evocation of British society today." "The Mirror" (UK)""

"Rowling has written a grand novel...a very brave book." "The Bookseller" (UK)""

A big novel about a small town...

When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock.

Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils...Pagford is not what it first seems.

And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity, and unexpected revelations?

A big novel about a small town, The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling's first novel for adults. It is the work of a storyteller like no other.