Today Little, Brown released the cover for J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy!

It takes on a vibrant, vintage red/yellow color scheme with an ‘X’ mark in a box – presumably a voting ballot. How do you think it looks?

In addition to today’s art, Little, Brown reveals that the character previously known as Barry Fairweather is now Barry Fairbrother (reportedly an error on the publisher’s part). The confirmed page count is 512. Mario J. Pulice designed the cover, with illustration and hand lettering by Joel Hollan. The audiobook will be read by Tom Hollander.

UPDATE 3: Amazon shows an alternative angle of the book, which reveals the spine (ooooh, aaaaah):

UPDATE 2: We’ve confirmed that this is the worldwide cover.

UPDATE: We’ve obtained this larger version of the cover from the publisher…

FUN: We took the Harry Potter books and made cover art spoofs based on The Casual Vacancy’s!

Finally, this updated cover copy was shared:

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.

The Casual Vacancy will be released September 27, 2012.