It Will Soon Snow

The laureate of the British Novel Prize for mastery of literary form. Mother and daughter come from abroad to meet in Tokyo: they stroll along the canals on autumn evenings, escape from typhoon rains, have lunch together in small cafes and restaurants, and visit galleries. All the while they talk: about the weather, horoscopes, clothing and items, family, distance, and memory. But what is the true reason for this journey? Jessica Au's novella is a contemplative meditation, an elegy, and a quest for answers to old questions. How can love be measured, and can we truly know the inner world of another person? "Such a calm yet ruthlessly precise focus, as Au’s, would be hard to maintain in a longer book, and this novella turned out to be very elegant and subtle. Au seems to tell us: as a storyteller meticulously adjusts her Nikon, so do we choose what to focus our attention on." — The Guardian