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Discussion Guide

The Authenticity Project

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.

These book club questions are from the publisher, Penguin Random House.

Book club questions for The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley

Use these discussion questions to guide your next book club meeting.

Julian writes, “Everyone lies about their lives.” Is this true? Do you?
Julian calls his notebook The Authenticity Project. Do you think people are increasingly searching for authenticity in today’s world? If so, why? How do they go about it? How do you?
We are all connected via huge social media communities, but increased online interaction often comes at the expense of the type of local, real-life community provided by Monica’s Café and Julian’s Supper Club. What do these communities give us that virtual ones do not?
Most of the characters in the book are lonely, but in very different ways. What are the various forms of loneliness explored in The Authenticity Project? THE AUTHENTICITY PROJECT DISCUSSION GUIDE Book Club Collection (630) 232-0780 x366 bookclub@gpld.org 2
The story is told from the perspectives of six main characters. Who did you relate to the most, and why? Which character is least like yourself?
Baz keeps the truth from his grandmother in order to spare her feelings. Julian avoids the truth to protect himself. Are there times when admitting the truth isn’t the right thing to do? Explain.
We all make snap judgements about each other, and often they’re wrong. What incorrect assumptions do The Authenticity Project characters make about each other, and what are the consequences?
There is a scene in the book where Monica and Alice first see each other through the café window, and both want what the other has. What does The Authenticity Project teach us about envy?
Riley is the only character in the novel who doesn’t have an obvious fatal flaw. Does this make him more loveable, or less? How does Riley act as a touchstone for the other characters?
If you found The Authenticity Project, what truth would you tell?
Is the ending satisfying? If so, why? If not, why not...and how would you change it? Is anything left unresolved or ambiguous? How do you picture the characters’ lives after the end of the story?
Finally, what else struck you about the book as good or bad? What did you like or dislike about it that we haven't discussed already? Were you glad you read this book? Would you recommend it to a friend? Did this book make you want to read more work by this author?

The Authenticity Project Book Club Questions PDF

Click here for a printable PDF of the The Authenticity Project discussion questions