Cold Enough for SnowWinner of the inaugural Novel Prize, an elegant and subtle exploration of the mysteries of our relationships to others A mother and daughter travel from abroad to meet in Tokyo: they walk along the canals through the autumn evenings, escape the typhoon rains, share meals in small cafes and restaurants, and visit galleries to see some of the city’s most radical modern art. All the while, they talk: about the weather, horoscopes, clothes, and objects, about family, distance, and memory. But uncertainties abound. Who is really speaking here—is it only the daughter? And what is the real reason behind this elliptical, perhaps even spectral journey? At once a careful reckoning and an elegy, Cold Enough for Snow questions whether any of us speak a common language, which dimensions can contain love, and what claim we have to truly know another’s inner world.Selected from more than 1,500 entries, Cold Enough for Snow won the Novel Prize, a new, biennial award offered by New Directions, Fitzcarraldo Editions (UK), and Giramondo (Australia), for any novel written in English that explores and expands the possibilities of the form. |
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asked backpack bathhouse beautiful blue bonsai bottle bought bowl boyfriend Cantonese carefully childhood chopsticks clothes cold color convenience store couldn’t crater lake dark door dress Eventually everything face feel felt flat floor garden gates girl glass gray green green tea hair hand Hong Kong inside jacket Japan kayaking kitchen knew Kyoto Laurie Laurie’s father lecturer lecturer’s house light looked milky Monet morning mother mountain museum never night once paintings paper lanterns passed perhaps plates porcelain pulled rain raincoat realized remembered reminded restaurant rice seemed seen she’d sister skyscrapers somehow someone sometimes spoke station stone stopped street sweet talk things thinking thought tickets tiny tired Tokyo told took train trees trip turned uncle wait walked walls wanted watched we’d window wooden