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 “Imagination is not the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power to that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared. 
--J. K. ROWLING”

Author Bio:

J.K. Rowling has written seven Harry Potter books between 1997 and 2007. The series has sold over 450 million copies in 73 different languages. The books have been adapted into 8 blockbuster films. She has won numerous awards and honorary degrees including the Hans Christian Anderson Award.

is reading The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling for March 28, 2013

J.K. Rowling, famous for writing the Harry Potter series, is widening the aperture and moving into adult fiction with her latest book The Casual Vacancy. I will sheepishly admit I am one of few who have never read a Harry Potter book unless you count the first dozen pages of the first one. I grew up on the J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series and the Harry Potter books just didn’t cut it for me. It is like a soap opera in a book.  It has lots of characters, that I am had trouble sorting out initially. You might want to get a notepad and jot them down. I wish I had.

The novel opens with a definition of a “casual vacancy.”

6.11 A casual vacancy is deemed to have occurred:
            (a) when a local councilor fails to make his declaration of acceptance
            of office within the proper time; or
            (b) when his notice of resignation is received; or
            (c) on the day of his death…
Charles Arnold-Baker Local Council Administration, Seventh Edition

On a Sunday in the pretty little English town of Pagford, Barry Fairbrother, married 19 years, four children, drops dead in the parking lot of the golf club on his way to dinner at the Birdie restaurant with his wife. It started with a headache.

The, cheerful, popular, optimistic, and now departed, Barry Fairbrother leaves behind family, friends, and a vacant seat on the Parish Council. Even before his body is laid to rest, everyone in town is talking about whom going to take his place.

Friday

“The deep black cuts in the white scalp, like the grooves of skates on ice, were hidden by his forest of thick hair. Cold, waxen, and empty, the body lay, re-dressed in Barry’s anniversary dinner shirt and trousers, in a dimly lit viewing room where soft music played. Touches of discreet makeup had returned a life-like glow to his skin. It was almost as though he slept; but not quite.” Rawlings demonstrates extraordinaire command of descriptive writing. I feel like I am there on that Friday in that funeral home.

J.K. Rowling has written seven Harry Potter books between 1997 and 2007. The series has sold over 450 million copies in 73 different languages. The books have been adapted into 8 blockbuster films. She has won numerous awards and honorary degrees including the Hans Christian Anderson Award.

J.K. Rowling reads from The Casual Vacancy and interview by James Runcie.