The Authenticity Project: A Novel

A New York Times bestseller

A WASHINGTON POST “FEEL-GOOD BOOK guaranteed to lift your spirits”


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

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 one another. 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.

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Published Dec 29, 2020

400 pages

Average rating: 7.42

478 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

JNLV
Nov 14, 2025
Fun and easy book to read. Prompted a lot of questions and conversation.
raeallic
Oct 09, 2025
10/10 stars
Absolute perfection.
Susanj882
Sep 29, 2025
9/10 stars
Cute, slightly mysterious at times, and heartwarming.
Larry Burns
Aug 28, 2025
7/10 stars
A fun set of characters.
Brianna Berry
Aug 19, 2025
8/10 stars
A little slow at first, but then I got sucked into the story just like I did with How to Age Disgracefully.

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