The Barbecue at No.9 (February 2026, Paperback, 400 pg) Jennie Godfrey

It’s 1985 and Delmont Close is gathering to watch Live Aid. Lydia Gordon is hosting, determined that everything looks perfect. The garden is immaculate. The television is state of the art. The family image is carefully held in place.
As neighbours arrive, so do the truths no one planned to share. Old wounds surface. New arrivals bring complicated histories. And by the time the final performance plays, nothing on the street looks the same.
A tense, atmospheric novel about appearances, community, and the secrets that spill out when everyone is watching.
Read more below.

Jennie Godfrey

R395.00

Available on back-order

Description

The second novel from the No.1 Sunday Times bestselling author of  The List of Suspicious Things.
It’s the summer of 1985 and the residents of Delmont Close are preparing a neighbourhood barbecue to watch the biggest music event in history: Live Aid. A day like no other that will end having reached millions and changing the lives of all who attend.
House-proud Lydia Gordon, whose idols are Princess Di and Delia Smith, is determined to put on a show that will impress everyone – with her posh garden and state-of-the-art television, and her sweet husband and two children, Hanna and David.
But as the guests flood into number nine, so do all of the secrets that have been kept in the close.
Rita, a new neighbour from Australia, is hoping for a fresh start but harbours a shocking event in her past; Steve, a young Falklands veteran, battles his own demons; and Mr Wilson is surely too good-looking to ever be trusted.
But as the hours count down to the last performance of the night, it’s Lydia who faces the heart-breaking truth that her immaculate home and flawless family might not be so perfect after all.
And if each of their neighbours is guilty of hiding something, so are the Gordons at number nine …