The Authenticity Project

Monica finds a green notebook left behind in a café. An entry in the notebook questions how well people know their neighbors and how honest people are with one another. After finishing work at the café, Monica settles in her apartment and continues reading.

The entry is written by Julian Jessop, a lonely 75-year-old who misses his partner, Mary. Five years after Mary’s death, Julian found himself friendless and without his art agent. He encourages his reader to read on or write their own story in the notebook.

Monica googles Julian Jessop and uncovers his successful art career as a portrait painter. She leaves work early to go to the cemetery where she finds Julian standing by the grave of Admiral Angus Whitewater.

Julian likes Monica’s Café, which he calls The Library because of its displays of books. He believes he left the notebook, in which someone can properly see him, at the right place: “Through that book, at least one person would see him—properly. And writing it had been a comfort, like loosening the laces on those uncomfortable shoes, letting his feet breathe a bit more easily” (12).