Little, Brown and Company this morning unveiled the cover of J.K. Rowling's first post-Harry-Potter novel, The Casual Vacancy.

Aimed at adults, the highly anticipated 512-page "blackly comic" book will be Rowling's first since the Harry Potter series formally concluded in 2007, and her first to feature a plot set outside the Harry Potter universe since 2008.

Synopsis:

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 facade 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?

A release date has been set for September 27th.

[images via Little, Brown]