J.K. Rowling’s highly anticipated new novel The Casual Vacancy finally hit retailers this week as fans clamoured to read her first non-Harry Potter book.
J.K. Rowling, who became a literary billionaire from the success of the Harry Potter novels and movies, made her adult fiction debut with The Casual Vacancy, which tells a story of ambition, envy and rivalry from multiple viewpoints.
In The Casual Vacancy, civic warfare takes over the fictional English town of Pagford when the unexpected death of a town official leaves a vacancy in the municipal government. Characters in the novel include affluent lawyer Miles Mollison and the Weedons, a loosely structured clan living in The Fields, the story’s rundown housing project on the edge of town.
During a recent talk at London’s Southbank Centre, J.K. Rowling told an audience of 1,000 fans that the idea for The Casual Vacancy came to her on a plane several years ago.
Although The Casual Vacancy won’t match the gargantuan success of the Harry Potter series, the e-book release of the new novel has already topped the Kindle charts and will likely become one of the year’s best-sellers.
Did you read The Casual Vacancy? What do you think?