Imagine living in a city and feeling invisible. In the past you were a somebody, and now with each year you feel less and less significant. People walk past you as if you aren’t there, your only interactions are with telemarketers or cafe customers asking you to make space.
Clare Pooley shows us the hidden pain of loneliness. She shows us what happens when we dare to tell people we are struggling.
Loneliness and lack of connection are so damaging to us that they can make life seem like a torment. The Authenticity Project offers hope that people can connect with one another, but to do so we must risk rejection by being honest and asking for help when we need it.
Julian, a once colourful artist, is drained of life and connection. Exhausted by his invisibility, he decides to take a risk and begin The Authenticity Project. One insignificantly small green notebook grips all who read it with its raw honesty. This book delivers a warm hug by showing us what happens when people drop the artifice to reveal their vulnerability. It is us without the filter; there is no presenting of our best selves.
Monica, a cafe owner in her mid-thirties, finds the book and decides to track Julian down. This is turn leads to Hazard, and the other individuals who are forever changed by the little green notebook.
My sister gave me this book as a present and even mentioned in her inscription she was worried it might seem a little sentimental. After a disconcerting year, this book felt like a validation of our collective pain and empathy.
The Authenticity Project is about making connections and becoming more humane as a result. It left me with a sense of satisfaction and something else, hope.