Jenny Mustard + Katie Kitamura: What a Time to Be Alive

Join us for a release event with Swedish novelist Jenny Mustard, discussing her new novel What a Time to Be Alive. Joining Jenny in conversation is award-winning author Katie Kitamura. This event will be hosted in the Strand Book Store's 3rd floor Rare Book Room at 828 Broadway on 12th Street.

Can’t make the event? Purchase a signed copy of What a Time to Be Alive here.

ACCESSIBILITY:

Strand Book Store is an ADA compliant venue. The event space is accessible via elevator. Please ask a Strand employee upon arrival for directions to accessible seating if preferred.

ASL interpretation is available for this event by request only. Please reach out to our events team at events@strandbooks.com by Sept. 26 to request.

For further information on accessibility in this space, or to make a request, please contact events@strandbooks.com.

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A fresh and probing look at modern urban life through the eyes of a singular young woman, perfect for fans of Conversations With Friends, Convenience Store Woman, and The Worst Person In The World.

Twenty-one, friendless, without money but not without hope, Sickan's arrival at Stockholm University represents a new start. She has always felt herself an observer of life, not a participant.

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, sex, loneliness, and a moving character study in which we might find ourselves reflected back in unexpected ways. With her utterly distinct style, Jenny Mustard captures the intensity of life’s 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?

Photo credit: David Mustard

Jenny Mustard is a writer and content creator, born in Sweden but living in London. Jenny and her work have featured in the Observer, the Independent, Vogue, Stylist, the Evening Standard and elsewhere. She has over 600k followers, and more than 50 million views on YouTube. Her acclaimed debut novel, Okay Days, was published in 2023 and her novels have been translated to ten languages. Her second novel, What a Time to Be Alive, is her first book to be published in America.

Katie Kitamura’s most recent novel is Audition. She is also the author of Intimacies, one of The New York Times’ 10 Best Books of 2021 and one of Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2021. It was longlisted for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, won the Prix Litteraire Lucien Barriere, and was a finalist for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize and the Grand Prix de l’Heroine, among other nominations. Her third novel, A Separation, was a finalist for the Premio von Rezzori and a New York Times Notable Book. She is also the author of Gone to The Forest and The Longshot, both finalists for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Cullman Center Fellowship and the Rome Prize in Literature, Katie’s work has been translated into 22 languages and is being adapted for film and television. She teaches in the Creative Writing Program at New York University.