W hen Barry Fairbrother dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little 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 facade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their hus-bands, teachers at war with their pupils... Pagford is not what it first seems. And the empty seat left by Barry on the town's 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? Blackly comic, thought-provoking, and constantly surprising, The Casual Vacancy is the work of a storyteller like no other. "Genuinely moving.... There were sentences I underlined for the sheer purpose of figuring out how English words could be combined so delightfully." - MONICA HESSE, WASHINGTON POST "An insanely compelling page-turner... Rowling did not become the world's bestselling author by accident. She knows down in her bones how to make you keep turning the pages." - MALCOLM JONES, DAILY BEAST