-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
A Novel
by Jenny Mustard
A fresh, sensual coming of age story by a dazzlingly talented young novelist, for fans of Sally Rooney and Mieko Kawakami.
Some people move to the big city hoping to find themselves, but young Sickan Hermansson isn't leaving it up to chance.
Twenty-one, friendless, without money but not without hope, Sickan's arrival at Stockholm University represents a new start. Her lonely childhood in a small southern town has left her utterly unprepared for intimacy: for friends, for sex, for love even. But Sickan is determined to build a new version of herself from the ground up, to make up for lost time. To simply be normal.
Just as Sickan seems to be finding her first ever friends, in whose company she finally feels safe, she meets Abbe: beautiful, charming—and by some miracle he wants her too. Unlike Sickan, Abbe seems completely at ease in his own skin. A solid foundation then, on which to build a relationship? Maybe?
What A Time To Be Alive is a story of class, love, loneliness, and the trials of young womanhood. But above all, it's a story of firsts: the first party you're actually invited to, the first moment you fall in love, the first time you betray a friend. The first time you ask yourself, how much of myself am I willing to sacrifice, to finally fit in?
"Tender and insightful on what it means to be young, to feel different, and to fall in love for the first time, What a Time to Be Alive is a finely wrought coming-of-age story—with a protagonist you'll want to hold very close to your heart." —Holly Williams, author of The Start of Something
"What a Time to Be Alive is a beautifully observed story about the chaos, fear, and passion of youth. Told with deliciously sharp wit and styled to perfection by Jenny Mustard. Not a single line is wasted." —Scott Preston, author of The Borrowed Hills
This information about What a Time to Be Alive was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Jenny Mustardis a Swedish novelist who lives in London. She has over 600,000 social media followers, and more than 50 million views on YouTube. Jenny and her work have featured in the Observer (London), the Independent, and Vogue. Her debut novel, Okay Days, was published in 2023, but What a Time to Be Alive is her first book to be published in America.
If you liked What a Time to Be Alive, try these:
by Aria Aber
Published 2026
An electric debut novel about the daughter of Afghan refugees and her year of nightclubs, bad romance, and self-discovery—a portrait of the artist as a young woman set in a Berlin that can't escape its history.
A girl can get in almost anywhere, even if she can't get out.
by Lily King
Published 2025
From the New York Times bestselling author of Writers & Lovers comes a magnificent and intimate new novel of desire, friendship, and the lasting impact of first love.
by Sally Rooney
Published 2020
A wondrous and wise coming-of-age love story from the celebrated author of Conversations with Friends
Harvard is the storehouse of knowledge because the freshmen bring so much in and the graduates take so little out.
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Can you name the title?
Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
