I read this book over a couple of short sittings: the first towards the end of a stay in an off-grid cabin for my fifth wedding anniversary, and the second back at home with a cup of lemon and ginger tea and Christmas-themed jazz music in the background. As you can imagine, both environments were very well-suited to the soft, cosy nature of this book.
Cold Enough for Snow, Jessica Au’s slim novella, won the inaugural Novel Prize, co-founded by the book’s publisher, Fitzcarraldo Editions.
The novella has a lot of substance, although not necessarily in terms of plot, but around the number of themes explored and the contemplative narrative style. It’s told in a rather dreamy, hazy style, as a mother and daughter travel from abroad to meet in Tokyo, exploring the local parks, cafés, and museums the city has to offer during a rainy autumn. During this time, the pair converse on several subjects ranging from the mundane (weather, horoscopes, clothing) to the deeper, meaningful subjects such as family, distance, and memory.
“I thought of the instances when I had been able to converse in a string of sentences, like with the woman at the bookshop, and how good this had felt, how electric. I wanted more of those moments, to feel fluency running through me, to know someone and to have them know me.”
Further reading:
- Cold Enough for Snow review - published in The Guardian by Imogen Dewey
Written on 19/12/2023