None of This Is True: A Novel

Netflix Ad for Hi! I’m Your Birthday Twin!

A short section appears before Chapter 1, featuring an advertisement for a new Netflix documentary, or “podumentary.” The ad is titled Hi! I’m Your Birthday Twin! and outlines a film about Alix Summer’s viral podcast of the same name. The ad relates that Alix, whose popular podcast, All Woman, ended in 2019, turned to a new project about a local woman (Josie) with whom she shares a birthday. The Netflix documentary promises to unveil the progression of Alix’s new project from a straightforward recounting of a local woman’s story to a darker realization of this woman’s true history and secrets as Alix herself becomes embroiled in a relationship that results in two murders.

A clip of the upcoming documentary shows Alix’s first interview with Josie. She asks warm-up questions while she checks sound levels. The podcast is audio-only, so the Netflix documentary shows shots of Alix’s empty studio. As Alix counts down, the picture and the audio both fade to black, and the opening credits begin.

Josie Fair and her husband, Walter, enter the Lansdowne, a pub near their home whose clientele had always seemed too young for them. Walter is especially uncomfortable there, but Josie is turning 45 today, and she wants to pretend, for a night, that she is the kind of person who eats at a place like this. A noisy group enters, attracting Josie’s attention. One woman holds a balloon that says “Birthday Queen” and is the center of attention. She is dressed casually and elegantly, her white-blonde hair swinging. Josie hears the hostess call her Alix Summer. Alix and her party of 14 is seated near Josie and Walter, and Josie wonders if today is also Alix’s actual birthday. She also wonders how different her life might have been if she hadn’t met Walter when she was 13. They married when she was 18, and now her daughters are grown, but she hates the idea of just sliding into middle age. She looks across at Walter, not even able to remember what he was like when he was 45.

Josie’s attention continues to be drawn to Alix Summer, who plays with a pendant on her gold necklace. Josie is wearing the necklace that Walter gave her and wonders if she should get a pendant for it. As Alix opens her presents, one of the cards says “45,” and Josie realizes that she and Alix are “birthday twins” (12). When she follows Alix into the restroom and tells her that they share a birthday, they also discover that they were born at the same hospital. Josie can see now that Alix’s pendant is a bumblebee. Before she can say anything else, however, Alix is distracted by a friend. At home later that night, Alix tells her husband, Nathan, about Josie, explaining why Josie had been staring at them in the pub.

The next morning, Josie is awakened from a dream about Alix by a bus roaring by the flat. When she enters the kitchen, Walter tells her that he already took her dog, Fred, outside. She makes a cup of tea and googles Alix Summer, finding Alix’s podcast, All Woman, which features interviews with successful women. Josie listens to one podcast about a woman who talks about how she rebuilt her life after the early, unexpected death of her husband. The woman muses that although her husband’s death was terrible, it was a “clean break” (19). Josie finishes the podcast before looking at Alix’s Instagram, which is filled with pictures of her seemingly perfect life.

The morning after her birthday dinner, Alix wakes up alone. Her husband, Nathan, comes home later that afternoon, wearing the same clothes from the day before. He had gone out to meet some friends after she went to sleep, and had taken a hotel room. She realizes that he has been out drinking all night; years earlier, Alix would have been amused, but now his addiction seems “pathetic” to her. Over the next week, Josie listens to every episode of Alix’s podcast. She finds the stories of women who overcame adversity inspiring, and Alix’s interview style attractive. On Instagram, she sees a photo of Alix’s daughter in a school uniform and realizes that Alix’s daughter attends the same school her own daughters did.

It is the Monday after Nathan’s second “bender,” and Alix wonders if this is the beginning of her marriage’s end. Now that All Woman is finished, she is ready for a new project, but she has yet to think of a strong idea. After dropping her kids off at school, she encounters Josie, her birthday twin from the pub. Josie is dressed entirely in denim. The women make small talk, and Josie asks if she has time to talk about a project. They agree to meet for coffee the next day.

Josie works part-time at Stitch, an alterations shop. When she gets home from work, she hears Erin’s gaming chair squeak as she walks by her daughter’s room, but she doesn’t go in, preferring to avoid the sight of her daughter’s messy room. This makes her think of her other daughter, Roxy, and of Alix’s children. She makes dinner for herself and Walter and prepares a tray of baby food for Erin. While she cooks, she searches for Roxy online, but doesn’t get any results. Later, she and Walter lie in bed and pretend to be asleep. When Walter gets up and leaves the room, Josie relaxes, knowing that he won’t return to bed tonight.

The novel’s perspective shifts to describe a clip from the Netflix documentary, in which Alix interviews Josie’s neighbor, who says that Josie’s nickname was “Double Denim.” The neighbor and her family always thought that the Fair family was strange. She relates that Josie was snobbish and Walter was nice, but up until five or six years ago, there was always the sound of shouting coming from their flat.

On Josie’s suggestion, Alix brings clothes to Stitch to be altered. Josie proposes that Alix do a podcast featuring her, as a woman who is on the brink of great change. She has been with Walter since she was 15, and she wants to tell her story to Alix as she is changing her life. Alix’s first instinct is to decline and leave, but as a journalist, she is intrigued by Josie’s suggestion, and they agree to meet the next day.

On the way home, Alix shops aimlessly and reflects that one good thing about Nathan is that he is not concerned with money. She suddenly feels better about her marriage and looks forward to the cozy evening she will have with her family.

The next morning, Josie puts on makeup and her favorite dress to walk the dog, Fred, then meets Alix at a local coffee shop that Josie has never been to. Alix proposes Hi! I’m Your Birthday Twin! as a title for their project, inspired by Josie’s first introduction to Alix. They decide to conduct a series of interviews that will focus on Josie’s life story up until the present moment. At home, Josie lies to Walter and tells him that she had coffee with a mother from Erin and Roxy’s school years. With an edge in his voice, he compliments her appearance.

Josie brings her dog, Fred, to Alix’s home studio the next morning. When she starts recording, Alix asks what Josie’s mother later told her about the day Josie was born. Josie reports that her mother only said that it hurt and she wouldn’t do it again. Her mother, Pat, is very active in her community, but Josie doesn’t know who her father is. Alix is surprised to learn that the man with Josie at Lansdowne was her husband, not her father. Josie met Walter when she was 13, and she recalls how powerful she felt then to be able to capture his interest. At the time, Walter was a contractor working on her mother’s estate.

The narrative shifts to the Netflix documentary and describes a clip in which Alix interviews Helen Lloyd, Josie’s childhood friend. Helen remembers Josie as being controlling and unhappy. When Alix asks if Walter groomed Josie, Helen readily agrees but also notes that Josie wanted Walter, too.

After the first interview session, Josie walks home from Alix’s house, which seemed to her like a picture in a magazine. While there, she stole a Nespresso pod from Alix’s studio in order to bring that feeling of perfection home with her. She tells Walter that she had coffee with a “school mum” again, but he doesn’t believe her. She hides the Nespresso pod in her underwear drawer.

In the Netflix documentary, Alix interviews Jason Fair, Walter’s son. After Walter left his mother for Josie, she moved the family to Canada, and Jason hasn’t seen his father since he was 10 years old.

The night after Alix’s first interview with Josie, Nathan doesn’t come home after work, and Alix knows that he is out drinking. She listens to Josie’s interview and is once again shocked by how Josie met Walter, especially when she recalls the man she saw at the pub. She feels even more strongly that this is a story worth pursuing and sends Josie a text to thank her for the interview. Josie sees Alix’s text and imagines introducing her to Pat, who would perceive that Josie knows someone successful and important. Josie scrolls through social media again, putting her earplugs in when she hears Walter’s voice elsewhere in the flat.

Early the next morning, Alix receives an array of penitent messages from Nathan. After his third text, she calls him, tells him off, and hangs up on him. She walks the kids to school, and while she is there, she asks the office manager, Mandy, if she remembers Erin and Roxy Fair. Mandy remembers that Roxy had oppositional defiant disorder and speculates that Erin, though undiagnosed, might have been on the autism spectrum. She also recalls that social services got involved with the Fair family when Roxy broke Erin’s arm. After that incident, Josie and Walter took Roxy home to be homeschooled.