Book Bearings
Before the Coffee Gets Cold
Book 1 of Before the Coffee Gets Cold
- 240 pages · about 4 hours
- First published 2015
- 24 editions
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1 About this book
In a narrow back alley in Tokyo there is a small café where customers can travel in time. The rules are strict: only one seat works, the traveler cannot leave it, only people who have visited the café can be met, nothing done in the past will change the present, and the visit lasts only until the coffee goes cold. The novel follows the café's staff and four visitors in turn, among them a woman whose boyfriend left for a job in the United States, a nurse whose husband has Alzheimer's disease, and a bar owner who has been avoiding her sister. Toshikazu Kawaguchi first wrote the story as a play; the English translation is by Geoffrey Trousselot.
- Fantasy
- Magical Realism
- Science fiction
- Romance
- Redemption
- Time travel
- Love
- Loss (Psychology)
2 What to expect
A quiet Japanese novel made of four linked stories, all set in one small café where customers can briefly visit the past. Because nothing they do there can change the present, the stories are about what people wish they had said to partners, sisters and family. It is slow, gentle and sentimental, it can meander, and its single setting reflects its origin as a play.
Good for readers who want: a gentle, emotional read, linked short stories, and Japanese fiction.
3 About Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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