Before the Coffee Gets Cold is a memorable story set in a small Japanese café with some time travel magic. The story will open your mind to different ways of seeing the world around you. If you like character-driven stories that are charming yet heart-wrenching, this is for you.
The third novel in the international bestselling Before the Coffee Gets Cold series, following four new customers in a cafe where customers can travel back in time.
On the hillside of Mount Hakodate in northern Japan, Cafe Donna Donna is fabled for its dazzling views of Hakodate port. But that’s not all. Like the charming Tokyo cafe Funiculi Funicula, Cafe Donna Donna offers its customers the extraordinary experience of travelling through time.
Before the Coffee Gets Cold was out in 2015 and you can read about it here:https://arunoday.blogspot.com/2024/01/before-coffee-gets-cold-toshikazu.html
Tales from the Cafe
Tales from the Café by Toshikazu Kawaguchi is the sequel to Before the Coffee Gets Cold, following four new customers who hope to travel back in time in a little Tokyo cafe. Both books have a cozy, calming sense of place and a cast of interesting characters.
“People tend to feel happy when spring arrives, especially after a cold winter. When spring begins, however, cannot be pinpointed to one particular moment. There is no one day that clearly marks when winter ends and spring begins. Spring hides inside winter. We notice it emerging with our eyes, our skin and other senses. We find it in new buds, a comfortable breeze and the warmth of the sun. It exists alongside winter.”
“clang-dong”
Welcome back to Café Funiculi Funicula, where patrons can embark on a journey into the past and/or future as long as they follow a list of rules among which is that nothing done in the past would impact the present or the future and you must return to the present before your coffee gets cold!
“If it is not possible to change the present no matter how hard you try while in the past, then why bother?”
A question that defies rational thought but the answer of which lies in the hearts of those who are grieving for the people they have lost, regretting all that was left unsaid, those experiencing guilt over past actions or words that haunt them and prevent them from leading their lives to the fullest and those who want to see their loved one(s) just one more time.
“We can never truly see into the hearts of others. When people get lost in their own worries, they can be blind to the feelings of those most important to them.”
This time we meet four new time –travellers.
- We have a man who visits a dear friend who was killed in a car crash 22 years ago and whose daughter he has raised as his own. Her impending wedding evokes guilt as he has never told her the truth about her parentage.
- We also meet a man, who was unable to attend his mother’s funeral and travels back in time to see her once again. The son hasn’t had an easy life and meeting his mother proves to be a cathartic experience, giving him a new lease on life.
- A terminally ill man travels to the future to see the woman he loved and to ensure that she leads a happy life and not allow his death to prevent her from finding happiness.
- The final time traveler is a policeman nearing retirement who meets his late wife on her birthday – a day he missed on account of work- to give her a gift.
With simple prose, endearing characters (old and new) and stories that touch your heart, “Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales from the Café” by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (translated by Geoffrey Trousselot) is an impressive sequel. Though I did enjoy reading the first book in the series, Before the Coffee Gets Cold, I must say that this book is an improvement over the first. Not only is the writing more fluid and less disjoint, but the characters are very well fleshed out and the stories are characterized by much more emotional depth and nuance. We get to know more about the café owner and his family and we finally get to know the story of the mysterious woman who occupies the time-travel chair in the café, vacating it only once a day, opening up an opportunity for others to embark on their journeys. Yes, there is a certain amount of repetitiveness (with each of the patrons being reminded of the rules) but that can be easily forgiven on account of how beautifully written these interconnected stories are. This book made me smile and yes, I did shed more than a few tears. I’m eagerly awaiting the third book in the series.
“Life too, passes through difficult winters. But after any winter, spring will follow.”
Before the memory fades was out in 2018
Here is another story of four new customers, each of whom is hoping to take advantage of the cafe's time-travelling offer. Among some familiar faces from Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s previous novels, readers will also be introduced to:
- A daughter who begrudges her deceased parents for leaving her orphaned
- A comedian who aches for his beloved and their shared dreams
- A younger sister whose grief has become all-consuming
- A young man who realizes his love for his childhood friend too late
and then comes Before We Say Goodbye in 2021
Before we say goodbye, translated from Japanese by Geoffrey Trousselot, explores the age-old question: what would you do if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?
The regulars at the magical Cafe Funiculi Funicula are well acquainted with its famous legend and extraordinary, secret menu time travel offering. Many patrons have reunited with old flames, made amends with estranged family, and visited loved ones. But the journey is not without risks and there are rules to follow. Travellers must have visited the cafe previously and most importantly, must return to the present in the time it takes for their coffee to go cold.
In the tradition of Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s sensational 'Before the Coffee Gets Cold' series, readers will once again be introduced to a new set of visitors:
- The husband with something important left to say
- The woman who couldn’t bid her dog farewell
- The woman who couldn’t answer a proposal
- The daughter who drove her father away .
In the hauntingly beautiful Before we say goodbye, Kawaguchi invites us to join his characters as they embark on a journey to revisit one crucial moment in time.
Before we forget kindness is set to be out in 2024.
Translated from Japanese by Geoffrey Trousselot and featuring signature heart-warming characters and wistful storytelling, Toshikazu is able to use a literary trope as complex and convoluted as time travel to reveal our relationships to the past and our obligation to do what we can to make sure the past is not in vain. This charmingly magical novel is about discovering happiness despite the pasts that we desperately want to revisit. Even when we can revisit our past, our future happiness is up to us to discover and create.
No comments:
Post a Comment