‘Rarely have I been so moved, reading a book: I love the quiet beauty of Cold Enough for Snow and how, within its calm simplicity, Jessica Au camouflages incredible power.’
— Édouard Louis, author of Who Killed My Father

‘So calm and clear and deep, I wished it would flow on forever.’
— Helen Garner, author of The First Stone

‘Au’s writing ebbs along effortlessly and poetically.’
— The Australian

‘Jessica Au is a new talent to be watched.’
— Romy Ash, Australian Book Review

‘The book relates the journey of the narrator, a woman in her twenties, and her mother who visit Japan in the autumn. On this fictional trip, the two women discuss art and their room sand the weather, which might be boring if it weren’t for Au’s svelte sentences and hypnotic sense of rhythm. Almost imperceptibly, the tale becomes more complex …What begins simply ends in uncertainty.’
— 032C

‘It’s a beautifully crafted novel about connection that asks if we can ever truly know the people closest to us.’
— Katie Goh, i-D Magazine

‘Flawed understanding, consolation, and insufficiency all infuse this compelling, unsettling novel reminiscent of Jhumpa Lahiri’s Whereabouts or Rachel Cusk’s Outline trilogy. A beautifully observed book, written in precise, elegant prose that contains a wealth of deep feeling.’
— Kirkus starred review

‘Quietly deft and moving.’ 
— Ellen Pierson-Hagger, The New Statesman

‘Cold Enough for Snow ... is a fresh venture down the road of migratory stories, ones that explore the fault lines that distance can create between members of the same family.... For all of us who are rendered far from our families by these distances, the book asks us, what can we share with our parents that keeps us tethered to them?’
— Jimin Kang, The Oxonian Review

‘This is a powerful novel about the relationship between a mother and daughter, and the ways that geography, language, art, travel and migration can change the ways we see ourselves, as well as alter the relationships we have with loved ones with differing life and cultural experiences. Reading it – no matter the season – feels akin to walking through a hazy, dream-like mirage, in which characters, emotions and intentions are ever-so-slightly out of reach.’
— Vanessa Peterson, Frieze

‘A triumph of subtlety and precision, its observations piercing yet compassionate, fleeting yet profound ... this book feels like a deep, slow breath of fresh air.’
— Rachel Farmer, Lunate

‘Cold Enough for Snow ... is dreamlike, between traum and trauma, in its aethereal cadences. And if Au is striking out for herself, the essence of the move is in her patient manner: not self-restrained (as trauma might be) but self-measured (as a slow dream might be). Her prose is serenely executed: astutely and expertly.’
—Joshua Calladine-Jones, The Hong Kong Review of Books

‘Cold Enough for Snow is a generous meditation on the subjectivity of experience, and how the stories held within a family can be strangely disparate, especially when migration is part of their history.... Above all, this is a book which resists any easy summary, offering the reader the complexities of experience itself.’
— Andy Jackson, The Saturday Paper

‘Cold Enough for Snow is a reckoning and an elegy: with extraordinary skill, Au creates an enveloping atmosphere that expresses both the tenderness between mother and daughter, and the distance between them.’ 
— Jackie Tang, Readings Monthly

‘[Cold Enough for Snow] is melancholic and wistful, but Au finds grace and succour in the small act of observing people, places and art.’
— Ben East, Guardian

‘[Au’s] calm, precise prose encourages a slowing ... [Cold Enough for Snow] is about ... looking closely, contemplating, being patient enough to let the world seep in, especially the small but beautiful things, while being comfortable with what goes unsaid.’ 
— Insights

‘This short stay turns into a gorgeous meditation on memory, family, nature and life. A quiet, haunting work that lingers like a dream. Brilliant.’
— Mark Haber, Literary Hub

 ‘A fascinating, touching story that becomes a meditation on the link between sensory experience and the intangibility of memory, ultimately asking how our lives can both recapitulate and diverge from those of the people around us.’ 
— David Griffiths, Buzz Magazine

‘Captivating, thought-provoking, and a joy to read, Cold Enough for Snow was a truly absorbing experience.’
— Caroline Spalding, Yorkshire Times