Narrated by Karro, or Karina as she’s known outside her native Sweden, Jenny Mustard’s take on Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina spans a year which will see a cataclysmic upheaval in her life.
Karro is spending New Year with her bother and his family, hoping to help save his marriage leaving her seven-year-old son with his father in their Highgate home. Her husband's an MP with hopes of becoming a minister; she dabbles in the arts, while their nanny looks after Sakarias. Karro misses her son desperately, far more than Aharnish to whom she’s been married for eleven years. In their marriage it is she who is the most beloved. Over her stay in the home her grandmother once lived, she castigates Stefan for his misdemeanour, unaware that a year from now it will be she who is the transgressor. When Won-sik arrives, a passionate intimacy is sparked that will see Karro leave her comfortable home, loving husband and beloved son for a man eleven years her junior.
In crisp, spare prose, Mustard unfolds Karro’s story in her own voice, unfurling the complexities of this woman whose apparently idyllic life masks a hollowness. Her marriage to Aharnish is based on a quiet enduring love leaving her unprepared for the passion that seizes her. Mustard explores the social fallout from her affair which plays out in much the same way as it does for Anna, made worse by social media which excoriates Karro for her passion for a rich, handsome man, considerably younger than she is. Karro differs in many ways from the original - Mustard’s much too smart to simply place Tolstoy’s classic in a contemporary setting. Both immersive and gripping, it’ll be one of my books of 2027 for sure.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin UK for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Okay, I loved Karro. There’s something so compelling about being stuck inside Karro’s head - she’s detached, observant, selfish, self-aware and sometimes completely impossible to like, but I couldn’t look away. I especially loved how unapologetically honest her inner voice is. She notices everything, judges everyone, contradicts herself, and then immediately picks apart her own thoughts. It felt much closer to an actual mind at work than the polished interiority you usually get in fiction.

The structure really worked for me too. It moves through memories, observations, relationships and moments without feeling particularly interested in giving you a neat, linear narrative. Instead, everything seems to follow the logic of Karro’s consciousness, which made the whole thing feel strangely intimate and immersive.

There’s also something wonderfully cold about the writing that somehow makes the emotional moments hit harder. Strange, uncomfortable, funny and completely absorbing. I absolutely loved this.

4.5 ⭐️

Absolutely brilliant,her best book yet!! Made it so interesting with her take on Madame Bovary,.
As a bookseller and book buyer I will definitely be recommending this!

Very occasionally a book will come along that feels like it was written with you in mind. Karro is that book for me. It is a contemporary re-imagining of Anna Karenina and I found my love of the original story really enhanced my reading experience but you don't have to have read it to fall in love with this book.

Karro, our protagonist, is Swedish and Stockholm's icy winter landscape is the perfect background for parts of the story. She lives in an affluent part of London with her husband Aharnish and their son Sakarias. When she begins an affair with a younger American artist her entire world is derailed. Her crimes: the affair, the fact that her lover is younger, the embarrassment she brings to her husband, and the abandonment of her child, see Karro losing friends and being ostracised. Questioning herself, which includes some incredibly poignant flashbacks to her childhood, sets Karro on a path of dissociation and destruction. How do you reconcile embracing your own desires and happiness when it causes harm to your loved ones? When does self-care become selfish?

Karro is a masterpiece. Reading the first couple of pages I found myself reaching for a woolly jumper as the cold seeped out of the story and into my living room. I couldn't put the book down and read throughout the night. I became as obsessed with Karro as Anna Karenina was with Vronsky at the height of their affair. The writing is stunning, it felt like I was present, watching it all unfold in front of me, and I felt Karro's happiness, need, euphoria, confusion, guilt, pain and heartache.

Karro was a joy to read and needs to be read by everyone, so go pre-order your copy now. Oh, and when you have read it, come back as we need to discuss it (and possibly scream together over... nope, that would be a spoiler!!)

Reading Karro is like seeing some of Anna Karenina classic landmarks rise again, this time to form a new, spectacular skyline. The view is honestly breathtaking and I really appreciate the way Jenny Mustard reimagined Tolstoj’s classic.

Karro has everything, a loving, wealthy husband, a happy son, her books (and all the time and resources to actually read them) - but a privileged life can only bring you so far. When she meets a younger American artist, she finds herself caught in an all-consuming affair.

I picked this book up and couldn’t put it down. The pacing was great, the themes crisp, and the storytelling sensual and compelling. Switching between stream of consciousness, sharp dialogues, and back again, we are presented with Karro’s inner turmoil as she navigates the world. The psychology of Karro is delicately dissected, and I think the author did an excellent job at creating a full fledged, complex woman. I mean, whether you like it or not, Karro is a white, privileged, upper class woman. Her problems are ultimately rich-people problems created all by herself. Still, I had compassion for her and wanted Karro to succeed in her pursuit of happiness.

I anticipate Karro to be a divisive read, as not all Karro’s choices might be appreciated amongst readers. But isn’t that the beauty of Literature? To be shown other perspectives and imagine what you would or wouldn’t do?

I really liked this one!

4.5 stars

I really really disliked Karro as a character - she was selfish, immature and just completely unaware that actions have consequences. So it is the biggest compliment I can offer this author that I loved this book so much. Karro's life was just a trainwreck (literally) that I couldn't look away from. I enjoyed the duality also between the start and the end of the book. Overall really strong!

This has jumped straight into my top 5 books of this year. It is one of those stories where I sort of hated but also loved the character and it’s just beautiful and tragic.

Karro is privileged, judgy and self-aware as she makes all these life choices that had me sort of screaming at her to stop but also thinking “if I were in that situation, I’m not sure what I’d do differently”. You navigate Karro’s inner turmoil right alongside her with the ‘stream of consciousness’ prose making you feel like you’re in her head with her.

While it took a few pages to get used to the writing style, it ultimately made the book unputdownable and the pacing was perfect.

I’ve already bullied a few people into pre-ordering!

Magnificent! Jenny Mustard’s retelling of Anna Karenina in the modern day is a truly special and delightful read. I couldn’t put it down once I was let into the mind of Karro. Karro, approaching her 40th birthday, seems to have it all and yet her life is lacking in so many ways. I adored Mustards clinical characterisation, sharp commentary , vivid descriptions of the multiple locations this story unfolds in and was deeply invested in this character. A powerful addictive read. Looking forward to buying a copy in 2027 and savouring a second read .
4.5-5✨