What a Time to Be Alive A Novel

<b>A fresh, sensual coming of age story by a dazzlingly talented young novelist, for fans of Sally Rooney and Mieko Kawakami.</b><br><br>Some people move to the big city hoping to find themselves, but young Sickan Hermansson isn't leaving it up to chance.<br> <br> 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.<br> <br> 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?<br><br> <i>What A Time To Be Alive</i><i> </i>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?