What is My Friend Anna? Book behind Netflix hit Inventing Anna

Rachel DeLoache Williams, who is played by Katie Lowes in the series, documented her encounters with Delvey in a 2018 essay for Vanity Fair, where she’d been working as a photo editor at the time.

She later conveyed her experiences further in a book, titled My Friend Anna, which was published in 2019.

Here's everything you need to know about the book behind Netflix's hit Inventing Anna...

Rachel DeLoache Williams's book My Friend Anna

My Friend Anna brought the story of Sorokin’s crimes to light after it was published in 2019, following on from a Vanity Fair article also penned by Williams.

Featuring in-depth reporting from Williams and real text messages between her and Sorokin, the book chronicles the pair’s tumultuous friendship from the former’s perspective and explores how she was convinced to pay $62,000 by Sorokin, who promised to reimburse her – which Williams said she failed to do.

As seen in Inventing Anna, Sorokin initially treated Williams to everything from fancy dinners and expensive sauna sessions to regular workout sessions with a celebrity personal trainer.

But things took a disastrous turn when Sorokin invited Williams to join her on an ill-fated “all-expenses-paid’ trip to Morocco’s five-star La Mamounia hotel. When Sorokin’s credit cards mysteriously stopped working, the trip took a dark turn as the con artist began asking Rachel to front the costs which, before she knew it, had added up to more than $62,000.

My Friend Anna gained significant praise and became one of Time magazine’s 100 must-reads in 2019 – it is available to pick up on Amazon now.

In April 2019, a jury found Sorokin guilty on eight charges: grand larceny, attempted grand larceny and theft of services. However, she was found not guilty on the charge of larceny in the second degree, relating to the alleged theft of $62,000 from Williams.

How closely does Inventing Anna follow Rachel Williams's book?

As detailed above, Inventing Anna does depict a lot of Williams's story but, unlike her book, the series isn't told entirely from her point of view.

Instead, the series tells the story through Vivian Kent (Anna Chlumsky), the fictional stand-in for Jessica Pressler, another journalist who penned the New York Magazine exposé on which the series is based.

What's more, Inventing Anna’s portrait of Williams isn’t exactly sympathetic, with the character described in the outline by Netflix as "a natural-born follower whose blind worship of Anna almost destroys her job, her credit, and her life.

"But while her relationship with Anna is her greatest regret, the woman she becomes because of Anna may be Anna’s greatest creation.”

Williams has since revealed that she had no input on Netflix’s portrayal of her - and that she felt the characterisation was inaccurate.

"This Netflix description felt shocking. [It] stripped me of my agency, accomplishments, and truth," Williams recently wrote in an essay for Time.

"Were we meant to believe that the woman I had become was not on account of the parents who raised me, the love I shared with family and friends, my own efforts or personal growth, but because of Anna?"

Read more: Is Inventing Anna based on a true story?

Check out our guides to the best series on Netflix and the best movies on Netflix, or find out what else is on with our TV Guide.

The latest issue of Radio Times is on sale now – subscribe now to get each issue delivered to your door. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the Radio Times podcast with Jane Garvey.