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 Aliveis a story of class, sex, 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?

Sam is 28, Swedish, carefree and chaotic. Doing a work placement in London over the course of three sticky summer months, she falls hard for Lucas, a man she first met as a teenager.Lucas, 27, sensitive and calm, is trying to get a foothold in the adult world while struggling to hold the pieces of his life together. Sam is a gorgeous distraction. But you can only avoid reality for so long, and both Sam and Lucas know their relationship can't last.Nobody can be this happy forever, surely? Okay Days tells the story of the rise and fall of Sam and Lucas's affection for each other, while looking unflinchingly at male body dysmorphia, women's reproductive rights, and the pitfalls of modern love. When is okay good enough? And what are we willing to lose in the search for a life that is much better than just okay?