The novel's concept is simple enough. Julian Jessup, a lonely old artist still living in the past when he was at the center of London's swinging art community, confesses his situation in a notebook that he labels "The Authenticity Project" and invites others to do the same before leaving it behind in Monica's Cafe. Monica herself, a woman in her late 30s dreaming of marriage and a family, finds the notebook and tells about herself in it, then leaves it behind in a bar.
And so it goes, those who find the notebook adding their own truths and passing it on, then seeking out those individuals they read about and forming a close-knit group of friends with seemingly little in common. In this respect the novel is much like Nick Hornby's A Long Way Down, in which four very different people meet on the top of a building on New Year's Eve, each planning to commit suicide, and then begin to care about each other and support each other.
What makes Pooley's book distinctive is that most of the characters aren't really as authentic in their confessions as they pretend to be. Julian, for example, is older than he says and isn't even a widower. Thus the story becomes more complex than it first appears, as the characters discover more about themselves and about each other.
You may be somebody afraid to be caught reading a soppy, feel-good novel in public, but be more authentic and take this one with you on the plane or to the doctor's waiting room.
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