wise words by

 Jocelyn Howarth
15th May 2025

A soft review of Before the Coffee Gets Cold

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

 

In a little Tokyo café where time stands still, Toshikazu Kawaguchi brews a story that lingers. Set in a coffee shop called 'Funiculi Funicula,' it serves a type of coffee made from Ethiopian mocha beans, which have a distinct aroma, and is always cool inside even in the height of summer, despite having no air-conditioning installed. There is a specific chair at a specific table always occupied by a woman in a white dress reading a book. She never leaves, except to get up to go to the toilet. This woman is a ghost, and the chair is a means for time travel.

 

It is important to emphasise that this is no science-fiction novel. There’s no chaotic attempt to change or save history, no eccentric scientist whose experiments have gone terribly wrong. There’s no TARDIS or questionable machine that may or may not spontaneously combust. It simply features a chair at a table in a coffee shop. This is a reflection of the book itself – simple, unassuming, mundane.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold is a short story cycle, which is a collection of short stories which can be read independently of one another, but which link together to create a larger piece. Each title is based on the characters the story features: who goes back in time and who they go back in time for. Every character we encounter is intertwined with another, their relationships often rooted in the coffee shop itself, and almost all of them present in each story.

 

The first story, titled The Lovers, features Fumiko, who is as in the dark on the workings of this mysterious cafe as we are. Through her focalisation, not only do we learn why she wants to travel back in time, we also discover the five very specific rules of the time travel itself: the present won’t change; the traveller can only meet people who have visited the cafe in the past; there is only one specific seat that can take you back; the traveller cannot move from the seat or they’ll return to the present; and a hot cup of coffee triggers the time travel, which must be drunk before it gets cold or else the traveller will be stuck in the past forever.

 

Like Fumiko, the reader might wonder what the point of travelling back is when there are so many restrictions. And why bother, since it will not change what is happening? That is the question Kawaguchi confronts us with in this book. He takes us through tales of romantic and fraternal love, old and new love, lost love and blooming love. It is a book about fear, hope, and grief, about the intricacies of relationships and the beauty of humans. Time travel becomes normal and people become remarkable. I didn’t expect to feel any particularly large emotion when reading it – wrongly, as it turned out. Kawaguchi makes you cry, then gently wipes your tears; forces you to witness crushing inevitabilities, then somehow makes you feel happy despite it. I’ve never read a book so devastating and uplifting at the same time, and it is undoubtedly one of the best ones I’ve read this year.

 Kawaguchi’s style of writing was one of the standouts of this book. There is no doubt that translation cannot make a bad book good, but it can certainly make a good book bad. Originally written in Japanese, this edition was translated into English by Geoffrey Trousselot, who did an excellent job at capturing the simple yet beautiful prose. Kawaguchi never overcomplicates anything, but I would not say his style is minimalist; it is honest and full to the brim with life. The dialogue, too, felt very distinctive with its short sentences and quick responses – delightfully realistic and easy to digest, likely a result of Kawaguchi’s initial intention for the story to be a screenplay rather than a book.

 

Each character was unique and well-rounded, their strong voices enriching this story further. In a book featuring time travel, making things too complex would likely ruin it, yet keeping things simple for safety’s sake would likely make the story fall flat. Kawaguchi gets the balance just right, which results in a fulfilling ending to each chapter and to the book as a whole. Each story is gripping in its own right, but their quality is enhanced when put together with the others.

 

Before the Coffee Gets Cold is the first in a series, and though I do not intend to read the next instalment any time soon, I know that one day I’ll want to return to the coffee shop and I look forward to that moment greatly. I will return for the characters, new and old, the wonderful writing of Kawaguchi, and the fulfilment I know the stories will bring me, no matter how painful.

 

It is a beautiful book and a beautiful journey, examining some of life’s hardest experiences with tenderness and honesty, and I would recommend it to literally anyone. Whatever style you like, even if the only books that sit on your shelves are textbooks about Computer Science, I guarantee you will enjoy this book. Read it in your garden in the sun, or in your living room while it rains, or in a stuffy office on your lunch break ­– wherever you are, you’ll love it just the same.

 

 

 

 




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