Marking her first novel since the "Harry Potter" series, the cover to JK Rowling's latest literary work "The Casual Vacancy" has just been released by publisher Little, Brown and Company.
Delving into adult fiction, the 46-year-old British novelist seems to be shying away from wizards and wands, although the simple cover marked with a checked ballot against a red background doesn't provide as much of a visual appeal as the covers of her boy wizard-based books.
The 512 page tome is described as "a big novel about a small town," where Rolling writes about a parish council election in a small English town called Pagford which faces "the biggest war" after a seat on council becomes vacant.
"The Casual Vacancy" is set to hit bookstores on September 27th and the audio edition will be read by British actor Tom Hollander, who appeared in “Pride and Prejudice,” “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Hanna.”
Offering a little more insight as to what the penning is about, the Hachette Book Group posted the following plot description on their website: "When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the 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 parish 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?"
Delving into adult fiction, the 46-year-old British novelist seems to be shying away from wizards and wands, although the simple cover marked with a checked ballot against a red background doesn't provide as much of a visual appeal as the covers of her boy wizard-based books.
The 512 page tome is described as "a big novel about a small town," where Rolling writes about a parish council election in a small English town called Pagford which faces "the biggest war" after a seat on council becomes vacant.
"The Casual Vacancy" is set to hit bookstores on September 27th and the audio edition will be read by British actor Tom Hollander, who appeared in “Pride and Prejudice,” “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Hanna.”
Offering a little more insight as to what the penning is about, the Hachette Book Group posted the following plot description on their website: "When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the 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 parish 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?"
Erotic novel `Fifty Shades of Grey' has outstripped the Harry Potter series to become the fastest selling paperback of all time.
The author has described her books as "romantic fantasy" stories, which offer women a "holiday from their husbands."
The book, the first instalment of an X-rated trilogy, has beaten JK Rowling and `Da Vinci Code's' author Dan Brown to the UK record.
At first, most sales of the series, about a depraved relationship between a young female virgin and her rich older lover, were of the more discreet ebook version.
But, as the trilogy's popularity soared, physical book sales have taken off.
Last week alone, the first installment of the novel sold more than 100,000 paperback copies - a feat that most of the `Harry Potter' books and all of the `Twilight' novels failed to achieve.
The novel has been Britain's best-selling book for the past nine weeks, while the trilogy has held the top three spots on the UK paperback book chart for the past six weeks.
Experts have said that the success of the racy books - dubbed "mummy porn" - has been driven by frustrated middle-aged mothers.
Philip Stone, who compiles book charts for `The Bookseller magazine', said that their reputation had been spread "totally through word of mouth."
"It is highly unusual for a book to sell so well without there being a film adaptation or the author being well known, like Dan Brown or JK Rowling.," the Daily Mail quoted Stone as saying.
"Clearly it has become acceptable for something like this to be talked about openly," he said.
A spokesman for Nielsen Book-Scan, which compiles the official chart figures said that the sales have not been driven by readers who buy novels regularly but by those readers who buy maybe three or four books a year.
Publishers are now rushing to bring out more similar erotic fiction - including `Jane Eyre Laid Bare', that is an explicit rewrite of Charlotte Bronte's novel.
The author has described her books as "romantic fantasy" stories, which offer women a "holiday from their husbands."
The book, the first instalment of an X-rated trilogy, has beaten JK Rowling and `Da Vinci Code's' author Dan Brown to the UK record.
At first, most sales of the series, about a depraved relationship between a young female virgin and her rich older lover, were of the more discreet ebook version.
But, as the trilogy's popularity soared, physical book sales have taken off.
Last week alone, the first installment of the novel sold more than 100,000 paperback copies - a feat that most of the `Harry Potter' books and all of the `Twilight' novels failed to achieve.
The novel has been Britain's best-selling book for the past nine weeks, while the trilogy has held the top three spots on the UK paperback book chart for the past six weeks.
Experts have said that the success of the racy books - dubbed "mummy porn" - has been driven by frustrated middle-aged mothers.
Philip Stone, who compiles book charts for `The Bookseller magazine', said that their reputation had been spread "totally through word of mouth."
"It is highly unusual for a book to sell so well without there being a film adaptation or the author being well known, like Dan Brown or JK Rowling.," the Daily Mail quoted Stone as saying.
"Clearly it has become acceptable for something like this to be talked about openly," he said.
A spokesman for Nielsen Book-Scan, which compiles the official chart figures said that the sales have not been driven by readers who buy novels regularly but by those readers who buy maybe three or four books a year.
Publishers are now rushing to bring out more similar erotic fiction - including `Jane Eyre Laid Bare', that is an explicit rewrite of Charlotte Bronte's novel.
JK Rowlinghas revealed that she plans to publish her first novel for adults, which willbe "very different" from her `Harry Potter' books.
It will bepublished worldwide, but no date or title has been released yet.
"AlthoughI've enjoyed writing it every bit as much, my next book will be verydifferent to the Harry Potter series, which has been published sobrilliantly by Bloomsbury and my other publishers around the world,"the BBC quoted her as saying in a statement.
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| J K Rowling |
"Thefreedom to explore new territory is a gift that Harry's success hasbrought me, and with that new territory it seemed a logical progression to havea new publisher," she said.
All the`Potter' books were published by Bloomsbury, but Rowling has chosen a newpublisher for her debut into adult fiction.
"I amdelighted to have a second publishing home in Little, Brown, and apublishing team that will be a great partner in this new phase of my writing life."
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| J K Rowling |
Little, Brown'sDavid Shelley said the company were "thrilled, honoured andproud" to be publishing Rowling's latest novel.
The writerpublished seven `Potter' books, which have sold more than 450 million copies aroundthe world.