Jessica Au says she likes prose that leaves the reader to work it out as they go along.Credit:Paul Jeffers
She has certainly found a distinctive voice ifCold Enough for Snow is anything to go by. It is the inaugural winner of the Novel Prize,an international award that guarantees the winner simultaneous publication in Australia,the US and Britain. The biennial prize was set up by Giramondo here,Fitzcarraldo Editions in Britain and New Directions in the US.
Giramondo associate publisher Nick Tapper says it is designed to honour fiction in English that does similar aesthetic adventuring to that often seen in fiction in translation. It received more than 1500 entries and Au’s novella was chosen from a six-book shortlist. Although Tapper had anticipated potential disputes during the judging,he said the process had proved harmonious and the choice ofCold Enough for Snow was unanimous. Au’s book has this week received an enthusiastic review inThe New York Times and by novelist Claire Messud inHarper’s.
The narrator ofCold Enough for Snow is a daughter meeting up in Tokyo with her mother,who lives in a different country. It is the first time they have travelled together as adults. They visit various galleries and museums,they shop,they eat,and they walk or travel by train. The reader learns more about the mother’s childhood in Hong Kong,and more about the narrator’s life in what the reader assumes is Australia and her view of her life and the art they look at,but not much seems fixed. Can the narrator be trusted?
It is a strangely beguiling book written in a tightly controlled prose that seems to contrast deliberately with its almost diffuse narrative that flits between past and present (and briefly into the future). Au,who is based in Melbourne and is a former deputy editor ofMeanjin,says one of the things she wanted to delve into was the notion of truth.
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“I am always aware that I don’t think there is an objective truth,ever. And I wanted to point that out in the story. But conversely,with writing all you can do is strive towards an emotional truth which does create a sense of recognition,hopefully,between you and the reader.“
And what’s the truth of the writing of the book. On the one hand,Au says it started 10 years ago as its basis was a short story she wrote soon afterCargo. On the other,it was the year before the pandemic,and then she wrote it in about three months.