Before the Coffee Gets Cold, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (2015)
In a tiny obscure basement café in a small alley in Tokyo, you can get a cup of coffee and maybe some food. Legend has it that you can order a cup of coffee and travel in time. The café is small and can serve only a few customers at a time. At the table in the corner, you will find a woman in a white dress who is drinking coffee and reading a book.
One summer, four customers seek to try their luck with the legend. Time travel, however, has very strict rules. Travel in time cannot change the present. One can only go back in time to meet someone who had previously been a customer at the café; one must sit in a specific chair during the entire journey; and one must drink a cup of coffee before it gets cold. The woman in the white dress is the ghost of the person who allowed her coffee to get cold.
As we meet the four “time travelers”, we learn their stories and the reasons for wanting to take this magical journey. Their stories are intertwined. Hirai left her family’s business to find freedom in Tokyo. She has been avoiding her sister for years, but suddenly finds herself needing to have an urgent conversation with her. Kohtake wants one more conversation with her husband before Alzheimer’s takes his memory of her.
This is a delightful little novel.
Read: February 3, 2021
4.5 Stars
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