The Casual Vacancy | featured news

Just the mention of her name, J.K. Rowling, had the audience screaming and on its feet. The "Harry Potter" author spoke for just over an hour before a capacity crowd Tuesday night at Manhattan's Lincoln Center in her sole U.S. public appearance to promote her first novel for grownups, "The Casual Vacancy."

Surely, somewhere, at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, lies a dusty, never-before noticed spell book. In that book, J.K. Rowling, the celebrated creator of Harry Potter, could find the formula that would transform her into a critically acclaimed writer of adult fiction. But Rowling isn't relying on magic as the release date for her adult novel, The Casual Vacancy, draws near. She believes her reputation for creating great characters and compelling stories will trump any spell that Harry or his mentor, the all-powerful Professor Dumbledore, could ever conjure.

It may lack wizards and witches, but J.K. Rowling and her publisher are hoping her first novel for adults, "The Casual Vacancy," will have the magic touch. The book's title was announced Thursday by Little, Brown & Co. along with a brief plot synopsis and publication date. The publisher said the "blackly comic" tale of rivalry and duplicity in a small English town would be available worldwide on Sept. 27.