Karro

Mustard’s prose captures the effervescent and the luminescent, a joy to read and share

Bryan Washington, praise for What a Time to Be Alive

Mustard is a measured and gorgeous writer, in command of the senses in a way that makes the reader feel alive

The New York Times Book Review, praise for What a Time to Be Alive

An ingenious contemporary nod to Tolstoy's classic ... A gripping psychological exploration of family trauma, high-society performance and the devastating cost of self-alienation

YIyun Li, author of The Book of Goose

A novel of rare emotional intensity ... Bold, modern, unsettling and exquisitely rendered. An exceptional achievement

Elaine Feeney

Heady and addictive yet surprisingly tender ... There were echoes of Raven Leilani, Natalia Ginzburg and even Virginia Woolf. Karro is easily Mustard's masterpiece

Molly Aitken, author of Bright I Burn

In prose that simmers under perfect control, Karro unfolds brilliantly: each turn is assured, unhurried, and more perilous than the last ... An astonishing, immaculate study in appetite

Kimberley King Parsons, author of We Were the Universe

Jenny Mustard is a writer of extraordinary nerve and imagination. Karro is daring, electric, and alive with raw humanity. Mustard’s prose is visceral and utterly absorbing, her vision fearless and singular. A novel that crackles with intelligence and refuses to let its reader look away

Chelsea Bieker, author of Madwoman

I gulped this contemporary reimagining of Anna Karenina in one sitting ... elegant and engrossing

In Case You Missed It (Substack)

Karro is a fresh, lush, ferocious take on Anna Karenina that doesn't just update the classic but sets it straight on key points, and not with animosity but with the loving frankness of long and intimate friendship. Beautifully observed and entrancingly written, it's a book about pleasure that is made of pleasures, from brilliant parties to erotic love to the quasi-erotic love of solitary reading. It's also wonderfully acute about social demonization and the mystery of mental illness. I fell in love with Karro from the first page.

Sandra Newman, author of Julia

I got so much pleasure and anguish reading this book. It manages to be both entertaining and harrowing as it delves into one of the thorniest dilemmas of the human condition - the pull between solitude and attachment, and the sometimes devastating cost of being true to oneself.

Roxy Dunn, author of Wants and Needs

A beautifully elegant and taut novel from a writer truly in control of her medium. Karro is a searing portrait of expectation and desire

Chloë Ashby, author of Family Friends