It’s hardback publication day for the long-awaited debut The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley, which is out in the UK now.
Since publishing in the US and Canada earlier this year, the book instantly entered the Indie Bestseller list and The Globe and Mail bestseller chart, and the buzz is just as exciting in the UK. Following Transworld’s acquisiton of the rights in a six-way auction in 2018, plans have been steadily building to publication, complete with Monica’s Cafe pop-ups, branded keep-cups and packages of proofs accompanied with Angel Delight. Clare also took part in a panel with Abbie Greaves and Beth Morrey earlier this week as part of the Stay at Home Literary Festival.
You can catch Clare on BBC Radio 2’s Steve Wright show today, and the book itself has already been selected as Woman & Home’s book of the month, as well as one of Cosmo’s top 14 books to read, calling it “A wonderfully warm, feel-good novel about the power of friendship and connection.” The novel is a story full of hope, about connection, community, and the kindness of strangers, which couldn’t feel more prominent than in our current situation where we’re all finding new ways to reach out to each other.
Sunday Times bestseller Sarah Morgan called Clare’s debut ‘one of the best books I’ve read in a long time‘ and we can’t think of anything better to have delivered to our doorstep. There’s no such thing as isolation when you have Julian, Hazard and Monica’s cafe to find solace in.
Six strangers with one universal thing in common: their lives aren’t always what they make them out to be.
What would happen if they told the truth instead?
Julian Jessop is tired of hiding the deep loneliness he feels. So he begins The Authenticity Project – a small green notebook containing the truth about his life.
Leaving the notebook on a table in his friendly neighbourhood café, Julian never expects Monica, the owner, to track him down after finding it. Or that she’ll be inspired to write down her own story.
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.
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.
