It's Jordi Gordan's 55th birthday and she receives, as she has for every birthday for the last fifteen years, a message from Nico. While her husband, Hal, cooks her a birthday breakfast, she cries over her message from Nico - because Jordi is a woman with a secret.
During the course of the day, the reader follows Jordi around: to the traditional family breakfast and the handing out of gifts, then to a visit with her (now French-speaking and senile) elderly mother, to Thrupps for some groceries, to lunch with her best friend, the irrepressible Sally, and then home where she makes the final preparations for a business dinner party that evening (an unfortunate miscalculation of dates that has robbed her of a special night with Hal). As she goes about her preparations, we meet Jordi's friends and family - and we get to see how her life is carefully constructed to screen all of them from her secret. Slowly, Jordi begins to tell us about Nico - how she first met him and where, how they knew as soon as they met that there was something between them and how neither of them could act on it because of their marriages.
For almost thirty years, she and Nico have been sidestepping each other - in London, in New York, even in Jo'burg. And at every turn we see how Jordi and Nico's lives are kept apart by Jordi's strong belief in the importance of her marriage vows. Even when she weakens and begins to indulge her fantasy of running away to be with Nico, there is always something to hold her back. As evening approaches, she puts Nico to the back of her mind and readies herself for her guests. The dinner party is a success and the atmosphere is laid back and casual. Then, while she is taking a break from the table, Jordi overhears two of her guests talking about her. Back at the table she confronts the women in an amiable kind of a way, but it becomes clear that something is not quite right. The conversation grinds to a halt before Moira, Jordi's poisonous sister-in-law, blurts out a shocking truth.
Genre: Literary Fiction
During the course of the day, the reader follows Jordi around: to the traditional family breakfast and the handing out of gifts, then to a visit with her (now French-speaking and senile) elderly mother, to Thrupps for some groceries, to lunch with her best friend, the irrepressible Sally, and then home where she makes the final preparations for a business dinner party that evening (an unfortunate miscalculation of dates that has robbed her of a special night with Hal). As she goes about her preparations, we meet Jordi's friends and family - and we get to see how her life is carefully constructed to screen all of them from her secret. Slowly, Jordi begins to tell us about Nico - how she first met him and where, how they knew as soon as they met that there was something between them and how neither of them could act on it because of their marriages.
For almost thirty years, she and Nico have been sidestepping each other - in London, in New York, even in Jo'burg. And at every turn we see how Jordi and Nico's lives are kept apart by Jordi's strong belief in the importance of her marriage vows. Even when she weakens and begins to indulge her fantasy of running away to be with Nico, there is always something to hold her back. As evening approaches, she puts Nico to the back of her mind and readies herself for her guests. The dinner party is a success and the atmosphere is laid back and casual. Then, while she is taking a break from the table, Jordi overhears two of her guests talking about her. Back at the table she confronts the women in an amiable kind of a way, but it becomes clear that something is not quite right. The conversation grinds to a halt before Moira, Jordi's poisonous sister-in-law, blurts out a shocking truth.
Genre: Literary Fiction
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