A review by jaclyncrupi
Cold Enough For Snow by Jessica Au

4.0

The Novel Prize inaugural winner is Jessica Au’s COLD ENOUGH FOR SNOW. This prize sees the winner published by @giramondopublishing @fitzcarraldoeditions and @ndpublishing in Australia, the UK and US respectively. It’s damn cool. And to see a slight novella take the prize is all the more exciting. In this book a mother and daughter travel to Japan and meander through museums, galleries and streets. They speak of trivial things and seem lost to each other. There is a spectral quality to the narrative. But who knows you better than the person who bore and raised you? Who has shaped you in a fundamental way, for better or worse, more than her? And why are we daughters doomed to never be able to fully know our mothers and they us? Just some of the questions I found myself pondering as our flaneuse wandered through streets and over mountains. It brought to mind Lahiri’s WHEREABOUTS and Kitamura’s INTIMACIES. The prose has an cinematic quality to it where it feels like you the reader fulfill the function of the camera but of course Au is directing you where to look.