Podcast Summary:
New Books Network – Burned by Books
Episode: Jenny Mustard, "What a Time to Be Alive" (Pegasus Books, 2025)
Date: February 6, 2026
Host: Chris Holmes
Guest: Jenny Mustard
Main Theme / Purpose
This episode features Jenny Mustard, discussing her critically acclaimed novel, What a Time to Be Alive. The conversation explores the novel’s aesthetic, its distinctive depiction of Stockholm, themes of friendship, sex, trauma, language, class, and the subtle art of writing in a second language. Mustard also reflects on Swedish identity, her stylistic influences, and recommends recent works in literature.
Key Discussion Points and Insights
1. Book Aesthetics and the Cover
Timestamps: 03:24 – 05:43
- The host praises the book cover's evocative image of a young woman reading calmly by a raging fire, seeing it as a visual analogy for the novel's quiet surface over emotional turmoil.
- Jenny Mustard’s Involvement:
Mustard selected the artwork herself (by Shannon Cottier, found on Instagram), feeling previous publisher suggestions didn’t match the book’s atmosphere. - Key insight: The painting captures the novel’s essence — “everyday, quite small, quiet moments, but at the same time, there’s often a quite extreme emotional turmoil going on.” (05:05, Jenny Mustard)
2. Opening Reading & Character Introduction
Timestamps: 05:43 – 09:40
- Mustard reads the opening, highlighting Sikkan’s reserved, anxious nature — a newcomer to Stockholm, craving friendship yet overwhelmed by social efforts.
- Scenes reveal Sikkan’s outsider status, her methodical approach to socializing, and her fascination with the free-spirited Hannah.
3. Friendship and the Appeal of Hannah
Timestamps: 09:40 – 11:47
- Discussion on Sikkan’s attraction to Hannah, who embodies a casual defiance of social norms and expectations.
- Hannah’s bold, even messy eating (biting a cinnamon bun directly) symbolizes her disregard for convention — an intoxicating quality for Sikkan.
- Quote: "Seeing someone like Hannah being so free, it’s almost like catnip... curious to how a person can kind of dislocate herself from this whole apparatus of popularity and fitting in." (10:14, Jenny Mustard)
4. Rendering Stockholm: Local Tradition and Distance
Timestamps: 11:47 – 15:27
- Holmes notes the book’s vivid sense of Stockholm, with traditions like St. Lucia Day and student rituals grounding the setting.
- Mustard discusses the “distance” gained by writing about Sweden from abroad (now based in London), which sharpened her vision of Swedishness and allowed her to see what is truly cultural versus universal.
5. Language: Writing in English as a Swede
Timestamps: 15:27 – 17:16
- Swedishness of English: Mustard intentionally leaves Swedish words untranslated, crafting a hybrid, globally inflected English.
- Quote/Reference: Mustard appreciates Salman Rushdie’s quote: “There’s no English, there are only Englishes.”
- She feels “outside of grammar,” liberated by not being a native English speaker: “I feel that there is no one people who hasn’t taken ownership of English, that we’re all allowed to use English the way we want to...” (16:10, Mustard)
6. Female Friendship, Intimacy, and “Practice”
Timestamps: 17:16 – 20:58
- What a Time to Be Alive centers on a deeply entwined, sometimes codependent female friendship, which Mustard feels is a particularly intense and ambiguous relationship terrain.
- Sikkan, as an only child of reserved parents, is largely unpracticed in intimacy, navigating first-time experiences (friendship, sex, love) in her early 20s.
7. Sex, Trauma, and the Reclamation of Pleasure
Timestamps: 20:58 – 23:53
- The novel features Sikkan’s deliberate experimentation with casual sex as “practice” before forming deeper intimacy.
- Mustard wanted to portray a female character with agency and pleasure around sex, not one who is punished by narrative conventions for sexual experience.
- The story addresses the shadow of childhood harassment but also insists on the protagonist’s right to joy and bodily acceptance.
- Quote: “I wanted to write a book about a woman having a lot of sex and a lot of good sex and not being punished for it.” (20:58, Mustard)
8. Stylistic Influences and Minimalism
Timestamps: 23:53 – 26:01
- Holmes observes resemblances to Sally Rooney and Rachel Cusk; Mustard also cites Banana Yoshimoto as her “absolute favorite” influence due to her ability to “create very thick atmosphere with very few words.”
- Quote: “I always want [description] to be filtered through the narrator so that the description both describes the setting but also says something about the emotional mood of the character.” (24:32, Mustard)
9. Romantic Relationships & First-Person Ambiguity
Timestamps: 26:01 – 28:59
- Discussion of Sikkan’s romance with Abe, whose own trauma complicates their bond — much of the “love story” is seen through Sikkan’s possibly unreliable lens.
- Mustard embraces first-person narration: “Is there such a thing as a reliable narrator?... Everything is filtered through our own worldview.” (27:13, Mustard)
10. Class in Sweden vs the U.S.
Timestamps: 28:59 – 32:52
- Exploration of class distinctions in Sweden: less dramatic economic differences than in the U.S., but subtle markers of social and cultural capital persist.
- Sikkan resents her parents for choosing less lucrative intellectual careers, believing their class signals contributed to her social ostracism.
- Quote: “Your social class isn’t strictly financial. It’s more about where you fit into the social hierarchy… cultural capital more than capital capital.” (32:17, Mustard)
11. Social Media and Timelessness
Timestamps: 32:52 – 35:03
- Despite Mustard’s real-life digital presence, Sikkan shuns social media in the novel, traumatized and cautious from her bullying history.
- Mustard wanted to foster a slightly timeless feel for the setting, avoiding “rent apps,” “contemporary” details.
12. What Jenny Mustard Is Reading
Timestamps: 35:03 – 39:11
- Recommendations:
- Things in Nature, Merry Grow by Yiyun Li: “...an exquisite meditation on grief.... It’s not there to comfort you, doesn’t comfort at all. It just keeps you company....” (35:37, Mustard)
- 99 Stories of God and “After the Haiku Period” by Joy Williams: Praised for their strangeness, dark humor, and “nuanced and complex” treatment of animal rights.
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
- “Seeing someone like Hannah being so free, it’s almost like catnip...” (10:14, Mustard)
- “I feel often that I stand outside of grammar, that I can get away with things that maybe a native English speaker or writer can’t because I’m not expected to be perfect in English.” (16:10, Mustard)
- “Is there such a thing as a reliable narrator?... Everything is filtered through our own worldview.” (27:13, Mustard)
- “Your social class isn’t strictly financial. It’s more about where you fit into the social hierarchy… cultural capital more than capital capital.” (32:17, Mustard)
- On Yiyun Li’s memoir: “It’s not there to comfort you, doesn’t comfort at all. It just keeps you company.... this is what we go through and this is what it looks like and it’s abysmal...” (35:37, Mustard)
Timestamps for Important Segments
- 03:24 – Book cover and aesthetics
- 05:55 – Jenny Mustard reads from the novel
- 09:40 – Sikkan’s attraction to Hannah
- 12:25 – Writing Stockholm for different audiences
- 15:27 – Language choices and “Swedishness” of English
- 17:16 – Ambiguity and codependency in female friendships
- 20:58 – Agency, sex, and rewriting trauma
- 24:32 – Style and literary influences
- 27:13 – First person’s power and unreliability
- 28:59 – Class structures in Sweden vs the US
- 32:52 – Digital presence and timelessness
- 35:03 – Book recommendations (Yiyun Li, Joy Williams)
Overall Tone & Style
The conversation is lucid, introspective, and deeply literary, with both host and guest displaying warmth, intellectual curiosity, and willingness to examine the ambiguous, messy spaces of contemporary life and fiction. Jenny Mustard speaks with intelligence, humility, and self-awareness throughout, matching the novel’s nuanced perspective.
Concluding Recommendation
Host Chris Holmes profoundly recommends What a Time to Be Alive, noting its electric newness and the immersive, affecting voice of Sikkan, and closes the conversation with gratitude for Mustard’s insights and presence on the show.