When Barry Fairweather 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.