Before the Coffee Gets Cold

Books | Fiction / Literary

3.8

(2.5K)

Toshikazu Kawaguchi

One of the most popular Booktok books on Tiktok in 2022In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time.In Before the Coffee Gets Cold, we meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the café's time-travelling offer, in order to: confront the man who left them, receive a letter from their husband whose memory has been taken by early onset Alzheimer's, to see their sister one last time, and to meet the daughter they never got the chance to know.But the journey into the past does not come without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the café, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold ... Toshikazu Kawaguchi's beautiful, moving story explores the age-old question: what would you change if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?

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More Details:

Author

Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Pages

300

Publisher

Pan Macmillan UK

Published Date

2019-09-24

ISBN

1760788627 9781760788629

Community ReviewsSee all

"I found this to be a very serene and somewhat melancholic read. Arguably also too short (though I loved the ending!) but being that it's part of a trilogy, there is more to be read. The one complaint I'd have is not being super into the writing style but it's translated so I cant hold it against the author/book. "

Mare

"…good book…interesting stories…exposing our human nature of assumptions, fear of opening our hearts to others, fear of being too late but also about our devotion when we love someone…the book reminds us to be mindful and open to love…"

LeeLoo Dallas

"This heart-warming story involves the question of what would you do if you could go back (or forward) in time. Each of the four time travelers’ stories are deftly interwoven and are insights into human relationships, love and loss. "

Jackie Davidson

"Bittersweet little book. Strange but cute..I wasn't so sure that I liked the end, but after thinking about it, I guess it was fitting...especially since this was a play. "

Nena Colunga

"Written wonderfully - easy to tell that the author is a playwrite! I could picture everything so vividly as if it were being performed. I cried so hard while reading at one point that I could not even see the words and had to stop. What a poignant depiction of grief, longing, and loss. "

Alexia Hollis

"⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️"

A Broke Book Buyer

"4,5/5"

Gizelle Villalta

"4,5/5 This book was so sweet and sentimental and so sad at some parts, like oh my god, Chapter 2 can we take a moment ughhh had me sobbing. I love the concept of the whole thing. It's very cozy and magical and so original the characters were all very likable. You follow different characters in each chapter, but they all Carryon into each other's stories which makes the whole overall story fall into place cohesively. I think you could take a lot of life lessons from all the stories. They can make you feel a certain way about the experience you've had or are going to have potentiality have and might make you look at things differently, which I love when a book can do that when you can take away something within all the stories. The writing was so amazing it made the atmosphere all the better. I could imagine everything so vividly."

Gizelle Villalta

"Just finished listening to the audiobook - very well done. You feel like you're in the cafe. And somehow it was much easier to visualize with the help of a skilled narrator than just reading it. "

Molly Hans

"3.5/5 !! It was mediocre. It didn't necessarily stand out to me, but it was definitely a really good book. The idea was genius and they followed a steady plot. There were just so many characters and it got confusing after a while. Maybe not worth $20, but if you find this at a library or something I would read it. :) Also, justice for the lady in the seat !!"