Naomi Klein is a Canadian author known for her generally left-leaning political views and analysis.[2] Klein is often confused with Naomi Wolf, an American author who is a notable third-wave feminist and has expressed center-left views. However, by the time of writing Wolf had become known for her right-wing political opinions, especially those related to the anti-vaccination movement.[3][4] The Washington Post's Laura Wagner described the two as both being "White Jewish women" who "published big-idea bestsellers in the '90s" (Wolf wrote The Beauty Myth, Klein No Logo),writing that the two had been casually confused for each other for several years prior to the publication of Doppelganger.[1] The claim that Wolf and Klein were confused for each other was backed up by other commentators, including those in New York, The New Yorker, and Wired.[5][6][7]

In the early stages of writing the book, Klein kept it secret and used the writing process to make sense of the confusion others experienced.[1] Klein intended the book to be different from her previous works The Shock Doctrine and This Changes Everything, which were structured like a traditional thesis defense. Instead, Klein structured Doppelganger in a more narrative way.[1][7] Despite several contact attempts by Klein, Wolf was not involved in the writing of the book.[1]