The Authenticity Project: The feel-good novel you need right now

Product Information

In an author’s note at the end of THE AUTHENTICITY PROJECT, Clare Pooley reveals how her debut novel grew out of her earlier blog-turned-bestselling nonfiction book, THE SOBER DIARIES: “What I discovered is that telling the truth about your life really can work magic and change the lives of many other people for the better.” Pooley relates how her experience of publishing a blog-turned-book about her own struggles with addiction and recovery had a ripple effect in the lives of friends, acquaintances and complete strangers. In THE AUTHENTICITY PROJECT, she dramatizes this process in a tale of a new, supportive community that builds from a single story. The Authenticity Project is just the tonic for our times that readers are clamoring for–and one they will take to their hearts and read with unabashed pleasure.

I thought The Authenticity Project was a really sweet and wonderful book, so perfect for being in the midst of this crazy world. I love the idea of paying it forward and really found many of the characters and their relationships with one another so enjoyable. (I totally see Bill Nighy playing Julian in the movie version of this book, even if Bill isn't quite so old.) The inauthenticity could be clever and meta. It came close with Alice, who realises her brand “was all about authenticity”, but knows her posts paint sunny lie after sunny lie. And a couple of other characters question the effect of the notebook. But overall, every paragraph felt utterly inauthentic to me.

Clare Pooley

But what annoyed me the most was the ridiculousness of the situations, everything was so unbelievable to the point it was plain stupid.

Predictably, mixups and hurt feelings ensue, even with the best intentions.Since most of the characters have lived solitary lives for some time, these first forays into honest connection with neighbors include painful revelations not always welcome to Monica, Julianand the others. But they are very welcome for "The Authenticity Project," whose cheerful premise demands bite to balance its not-always-believable sweetness. Little do they realize that such small acts of honesty hold the power to impact all those who discover the notebook and change their lives completely. I think the best part of this novel is the incredible characterization. I fell in love with all of the characters in their own way. They had deepness and layers beyond the initial exterior, which the different chapters from differing character perspectives really helped to accentuate. It was wonderful to see them bloom as the novel progressed. I also loved the relationships between them. This book truly highlights how important good friendships are to people’s lives. The Authenticity Projectreads like a gorgeous box of chocolates: sweet, surprising and impossible not to love. I found myself cheering, cringing, laughing and crying as I read this book and – above all – remembering the true value of community and human connection.”

Customer reviews

The Authenticity Project follows the lives of 6 people, who have all expressed the deepest truths in a textbook that they have found. They come together from their different lives, to form friendships and bonds to last a lifetime. Do you follow suit and share your own story and pass the journal on and leave it for the next person? In November 2020, the Government Chemist, the UK statutory technical appellate function for food control 1, was asked to provide an independent secondary expert opinion on the dataset of analytical results underpinning a UK media article. The story carried the headline “ Supermarket brands of honey are ‘bulked out with cheap sugar syrups made from rice and corn’” 2; similar media stories recur from time to time, e.g 3– 8. The dataset stemmed from the analyses of 13 own-brand honey samples of major UK retailers, commissioned by a South American bee-keeping organisation. The UK Foods Standards Agency, FSA, supplied three certificates of analysis (CoA), representative of the dataset 9. Herein is presented the Government Chemist’s opinion.