What a Time to Be Alive

A Novel

By: Jenny Mustard

Narrated by: Kaisa Hammarlund

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?

©2025 Mustard Stories, Ltd (P)2025 Hodder and Stoughton, Limited

Innermost thoughts

The storyline was sometimes difficult to follow. I fell asleep if listening at night so that did not help. I was motivated to finish it and liked that she expressed herself genuinely. But it was a bit pointless to me. I guess it explains lust & love fairly accurately.