When Barry Fairbrother dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the
little 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 town’s 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? Blackly comic, thought-provoking and constantly
surprising, The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling’s first novel for adults.