The woman in front of me in the checkout line bought J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy at the grocery store yesterday. I wasn’t prepared for this opportunity and wasn’t able to get my iPhone out of my purse in time to get a good picture before she put it into her grocery bag.

As she was ringing up the purchase, the cashier said she wanted to read it too–a friend of hers had enjoyed it and recommended it highly.

There is no bookstore in the village of less than 2,000 inhabitants where I was shopping, but the grocery store usually stocks the bestsellers. I checked the news (link in French), and sure enough “Une Place À Prendre,” the title of the French translation, is at the top of the charts for novels in France this week.