One Month Until The Casual Vacancy, You Guys!

Today marks exactly one month until the release of The Casual Vacancy, JK Rowling's first novel for adults. I couldn't be more excited. 

The synopsis definitely piques my interest - much more than the bland looking cover does anyway. I'm happy the novel will take place in England, because it just wouldn't feel JK Rowling-ish if it didn't. Cobblestones? Check. Wonderfully traditional English sounding names? Check.

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?

Sounds promising, right? I'm trying not to get my hopes too high, but it's JK Rowling and it's really hard not to expect greatness. I'll try not to compare her new novel to her best selling series, but I will say I hope it is just as imaginative. It seems Rowling herself doesn't want any comparisons to her earlier works, even when it comes to her marketing. B&N Vice President Patricia Bostelman says of the "left in the dark" marketing approach of Little, Brown, "Apparently much of their behavior is at J.K. Rowling's wishes." Rowling "has very strong opinions on how she wants publishing of the book handled. She's trying not to live on the laurels of Harry Potter and very much wants to have this book stand alone, on its own merit, just as if she were just any other author who was landing on the scene." Except it's JK Rowling, and she most certainly isn't "any other author."

Beth from Bookworm Meets Bookworm and I talked about doing a read-along that would start right around, or on, the novel's release date. More details to come on that...