We’re so pleased that The Authenticity Project, the delightful debut by Clare Pooley, has finally been released by Penguin Random House / Pam Dorman Books, in its lovely US paperback jacket.

With a fantastic combination of heart, humour and depth, the book has been a mega-hit with readers and critics alike. In terms of sales, it’s done excellent numbers – just recently, it has hit combined sales of 100,000 in the UK, US and Canada. Following the book’s US hardback release earlier this year, it received overwhelming positive responses from the press and from critics. To date, it has been highlighted in numerous round-ups including Good Morning America’s ‘20 Books You’ll Want to Read in 2020‘, the New York Post‘s “Best Books of the Week”, and the Washington Post‘s ‘Books to Lift Your Spirits. Clare herself had a fantastic feature in Publisher’s Weekly, in which she talks more about her life the inspiration behind the book.

Most recently, Library Journal commended the book as one of its ‘Best Books 2020‘ list, in the Pop Fiction category, and it was listed as one of Apple Books’ 2020 bestsellers. Excitingly, book has also been chosen as a No.1 LibraryReads pick and an Indie Next selection.  Do keep an eye on Clare and her team’s socials,  for the book’s epic paperback campaign, which will involve giveaways, as well as other fun surprises!

Readers are taken on an engaging journey through the lives, loves, struggles and losses of several very different Londoners, on their quest to live authentically:

The story of a solitary green notebook that brings together six strangers and leads to unexpected friendship, and even love

Julian Jessop, an eccentric, lonely artist and septuagenarian believes that most people aren’t really honest with each other. But what if they were? And so he writes—in a plain, green journal—the truth about his own life and leaves it in his local café. It’s run by the incredibly tidy and efficient Monica, who furtively adds her own entry and leaves the book in the wine bar across the street. Before long, the others who find the green notebook add the truths about their own deepest selves—and soon find each other In Real Life at Monica’s Café.

The Authenticity Project’s cast of characters—including Hazard, the charming addict who makes a vow to get sober; Alice, the fabulous mommy Instagrammer whose real life is a lot less perfect than it looks online; and their other new friends—is by turns quirky and funny, heartbreakingly sad and painfully true-to-life. It’s a story about being brave and putting your real self forward—and finding out that it’s not as scary as it seems. In fact, it looks a lot like happiness.

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.

Reviewers are still raving about Clare’s charming characters and story-weaving:

“A beautiful and illuminating story of self-creation.” Publisher’s Weekly

“A warm, charming tale about the rewards of revealing oneself, warts and all.” People Magazine “Book of the Week”

“As soon as the lock down began I knew I needed an uplifting read to help me through this tumultuous time and I figured lots of other people would be looking to escape too and so I set up The Pineapple Book Club on Facebook and picked The Authenticity Project as our first read. Nearly 200 of us have lost ourselves in this very uplifting book… I had to force myself to slow down!” Amazon reviewer, 5 stars 

“I devoured this book like I would a slice of my favourite carrot cake! It hooked me from the start and I was totally invested in all the characters. It’s such a heartwarming, funny, clever and poignant read that brings up difficult topics but deals with them in a way that’s totally believable and relatable.” Amazon reviewer, 5 stars 

Clare Pooley graduated from Newnham College, Cambridge and spent twenty years in the heady world of advertising before becoming a full-time mum. She is the author of the hugely popular blog, Mummy was a Secret Drinker, under the pseudonym Sober Mummy and her memoir, The Sober Diaries was published by Hodder in 2017 to critical acclaim. Her blog has had over two million hits and she recently gave a TEDx talk titled Making Sober Less Shameful.

The Authenticity Project is, in part, inspired by the twenty years Clare spent in advertising, a world where the line between authenticity and fiction is constantly blurred. But it was also informed by her own experience of exposing the rather grubby truth about her seemingly perfect life in her memoir.

Clare lives in Fulham, London with her long-suffering husband, three children, dog and a cupboard filled with alcohol-free beer.

This book is ‘feel-good’ at its finest – if you haven’t had the pleasure of reading yet, buy now to give yourself the perfect dose of optimism, as we near the end of the year!