A lovely book that has many stories intertwining throughout each other.

Based in a basement coffee shop in Tokyo, where coffee has been brewed for a long time, and customers are offered the chance to travel back in time - but they must return before the coffee gets cold.

I really struggled with this book, first though I have to say it was beautifully written, it just did not catch my interest. I found the character a bit to needy and the story line a bit slow. Judging by the other reviews I am alone in this, could just me me. Don’t let me put you off. I am a SIFi reader and particularly like time travel as a subject, for me once I read the description I had an expatiation for the book which I did not find reading it, so down to me really.

An ARC I was drawn to thanks to the time travel element. I didn’t realise beforehand, but this was also set in Japan, I believe. The culture is a little different, and so the dialogue wasn’t as ‘natural’ as what I was used to, but then I wouldn’t know either way! I raced through this story as well, as it was an adorable concept. Sci-fi with a big heart.

A magical mystery novel set in a basement cafe named the Funiculi Funicula which of course is the title of a Neapolitan song to commemorate the opening of the first funicular railway on Mount Vesuvius. A coincidence? I think not. A cast of characters who pass in and out to the sonorous clank of the door ringer… clang-dong… reminiscent perhaps of a funicular motion, in and out, up and down.

It is delightfully and simply written. There is an urban myth doing the rounds that a certain chair in the establishment enables a person to travel back and beyond the present. There are rules aplenty if you are tempted…. The seat in fact is already occupied and the only time a new person wishing to travel from the present is when the occupant makes a visit to the toilet.

You can only commune with people if they themselves have visited the cafe; and more importantly, the occupier of the seat must complete their session before the coffee, with which they have been served, gets cold… otherwise dire things might come to pass.

At first sight this is a simple little book, simply written. Yet the ideas contained within the prose are through provoking and often poignant. Four visitors need closure on specific events: one woman needs to obtain a letter written to her by her husband who has now developed early onset Alzheimer. Others need to meet the daughter they never actually got to know … confront a man who left and went to America… see a sister one final time. It ponders the what if nature of our desires and the reality of being able to fulfil one’s yearning. Indeed, what would you change if you could go back in time?

I could very much see the deeper issues that the author is addressing, often with a little humour and a good deal of insight. And yet. I have loved The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide and recently enjoyed Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards, Fiction, with a Sense of Place 2019) – novels I felt were of a similar nature and length. Yet I couldn’t get beyond the simplistic prose and the repetition of the rules and the coming and going of the visitors to the cafe. It is in many ways a lovely read but I felt it never really got under my skin.

It feels very Japanese but setting in terms of TripFiction is not strong.

I was sent a copy of Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi to read and review by NetGalley.
This novel had a very interesting concept, not all of which I found had a satisfactory resolution. The premise of the story is that in an old coffee shop in Tokyo there is the extraordinary facility of enabling customers to time-travel. The travel is swift, you have to return to the present before the coffee you are served for the purpose gets cold, and you can only ever do it once. As I say, it is an interesting story but it took me a while to settle into the way it was written, possibly due to the translation, but I did enjoy it and it really did make me think – which is, I suppose, a good enough reason to read it.

There are all moments in life you wish you could revisit. The last time you saw a relative; a particular argument that you never could go back on; but what exactly would you do? Is the past fixed? Would you change your mind? IN Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s novel (here translated by Geoffrey Trousselot) a chance to revisit the past has implications for each of the four people who seek the offer. Unfortunately, I found their trips in time to really serve a very pointed agenda over the best way to behave.

In Tokyo there is an urban legend about a café called Funiculi Funicular. There is a apparently a seat where if you sit there and have a cup of coffee you can travel in time. Many people sought it out but soon the attraction faded. Because in this dark timeless café the rules are you can never leave the seat; only there as long as the coffee gets warm and they can’t actually change the past. Oh, and these days the seat is permanently occupied by a ghost (of a person who broke the rules) so you have to wait until they go the toilet before you can try. A police box this is not! Over the course of this novel we meet four people who have very specific reason to go back and in each the change they make is more for their own futures.

So yes, it’s a unique concept and I like the low tech approach of a magical café and it’s more low key staff who just all work around the seat and ghost rather than making it some world shattering discovery. The whole style of the novel is this is a normal world even with time travel but my issue with the novel was how the four women all chosen to time travel were all getting a cosmic pull your socks up experience in how women should behave. In one a young powerful executive was being chided for not telling her ex-boyfriend she really loved him; a woman with a husband with Alzheimers was told effectively it better to lie to a husband that all will be well in the future then carry on living while he declines. But the final two stories are were I saw red – in the third tale an ongoing character who owns a nearby Inn who we have met in earlier tales was revealed to have left her parent’s hotel many years ago to live her own life. A family tragedy means when she has her trip in time is the universe apparently told her to give up having her own place; dressing and behaving rebelliously (aka drinking; smoking and wearing leopard print tops) and instead she goes back home and dress traditionally. The final tale is where a woman is pregnant with a heart condition which in childbirth would be fatal. The hotel shows her an unusual trip to the future and shows her that her sacrifice will mean a happy young woman is born out of her personal tragedy…

The whole philosophy of the tales is that women need to pay better attention to their men; not rebel and follow their natural roles whatever the cost to themselves and I found this incredibly increasingly patronising and sexist as the novel progressed. It increasingly became evident this was the theme as I realised the ghost would of course be a woman who did not follow the rules when trying to talk to a lover. Kawaguchi seems fond to have women see the error of their ways and behave better – the high-flying executive we meet in the first tale is even apparently happier in the future to just help run the café. I will be honest by the end I was just wanting this café to suffer an accidental fire and have no more lives ruined. It’s a cosy time travel novel with a razor sharp unpleasant sexist moral message that really didn’t work for me. I prefer my time travel to be a bit more rebellious; very aptly this is not my cup of tea at all.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi is a short-ish novel of time travel, told in four parts. Originally published in Japanese, it was recently translated into English. I picked it up because the time travel aspect interested me.

In 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 . . .

This is one novel but it's divided into four parts, each focussing on a different character, albeit with a lot of overlap. The story is set almost entirely in a cafe with timeless decor that has an urban legend attached to it: time travel is possible inside the cafe. Whenever customers ask about travelling back in time, however, they are quickly put off by the very restrictive rules presented to them. Before the Coffee Gets Cold is about four people who did not let the restrictive rules stop them.

This was a very gentle and character-driven read. In each section, we get to know a particular character and their motivations for wanting to time travel. And, arguably most interestingly, their reasons for accepting the limitation of the cafe's time travel capabilities. The book was written in a nuanced but not overly-dramatic tone. Although I usually prefer plot-driven and/or drama-filled stories, I found myself keen to pick this one up again each evening.

I enjoyed Before the Coffee Gets Cold and I recommend it to anyone looking for a different sort of time travel story. I've heard it has been made into a (Japanese) movie called Cafe Funiculi Funicula and I'm interested in watching it as well, though I'm not sure how easy it will be to get my eyes on.

4 / 5 stars

First published: September 2019, Picador (Japanese version first published in 2015)
Series: No
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

I found this book a little disappointing. Being a big fan of time travel novels I expected something a little more imaginative than this, which seems to plod along with very little emotion or excitement.
I think maybe because It was adapted from a play (I can see that working!), it suffers in translation, both in language and in setting.
It was still thought provoking, and a quick read, but not the best Japanese book I’ve read recently.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi is a novel translated from Japanese about a small little cafe which seems to have a secret. If you sit in one seat, you can travel in time.

This book has absolutely gorgeous writing, if you are at all familiar with other Japanese media you'll also likely feel that the translation by Geoffrey Trousselot has kept the emotion and feelings of the original work. It is a style unique to that culture, and it works so well for this concept.
We follow four different people through their journey to wanting to time travel and their experiences with it, whilst the back drop of the cafe and its staff remains constant. The reasons are all unique, profound, and the results are not what the individual expects but are just so perfectly imperfect.

This quickly became one of my favourite books of 2019 and in fact one of my favourite books of all time. This short novel packs a beautiful punch, and I absolutely recommend it. General fiction with touches of fantasy are always fun, and this one just does it spectacularly.

I love all things Asian and having been to Tokyo for the first time last year, I’m grabbing anything and everything Japanese that I can.
This book was sweet, moving and interesting, with a unique premise. I think perhaps a little of the story got lost in translation, but it’s still worth a read.

A short Japanese about time travel set in a café was always going to have to be read by me! It ticks all the boxes on the face of it, and I was hoping for something along the lines of <em>If Cats Disappeared from the World</em> by Genki Kawamura or Yoko Ogawa's perhaps

The premise is simple - A small café in a Tokyo backstreet offers its customers a unique experience - the chance to travel back in time. But, the customer must sit in a particular seat and they can't leave the café, and most importantly, they must return before their cup of coffee gets cold. Four visitors want to return - each with a different aim as the blurb states: "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.

The book started well as we meet the recently dumped Fumiko, setting up the first time-traveling experience.. However as it went on, I found the novel rather repetitive - especially as the time-travel aspect is totally limited to the café's environs, and I also got terribly confused with so many of the characters having names, beginning with 'K'. I loved the idea of this novel and the visitors' causes, but it didn't move me as it could have, unlike the two books mentioned above. We do get to find out what happens when the coffee gets cold though...

Thanks to netgalley and the publishers for allowing me to review this book.

This is what I would call a sweet little book with intertwining stories. Quite interesting links between the people therein.

Really lovely concept and storyline, but just felt a little too long winded for me sadly. I struggled to get through it. Unsure if it's the translation aspect or just not for me.

A really delightful and heart-warming story with the rich detail and simple sweetness of Japanese writing that I love so much. The idea of being able to change the little "what-ifs" in your life is appealing and nicely executed.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi is a quick little book, which is set in a cafe where there is one seat that if you sit in, and drink coffee, you'll be able to travel in time. But, you have to drink the coffee before it gets cold, or you won't return!

The book has four stories in it, and you see different people coming in to time travel. It's a science fiction book as it has time travel, but that is the limit of the sci-fi! It is telling you about the people, their lives, and how the time travel affects them.

I really enjoyed this book. It was light, and refreshingly different as it was written in Japanese, and released in Japan first, and has now been translated.

Before The Coffee Gets Cold was published on 19th September 2019, and is available to buy on Amazon and on Waterstones. I've found a link to where you can search for local bookshops, including independent!

You can follow Toshikazu Kawaguchi on Goodreads. I'm afraid I couldn't find their website, or social media!

If you're interested in self discovery books, then here's some others I've reviewed:

One Summer in Paris by Sarah Morgan 🌟🌟🌟🌟
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
What She Found in the Woods by Josephine Angelini 🌟🌟🌟🌟

I was given this book for free in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Pan Macmillan (the publishers) for this book.

Check out my GoodReads profile to see more reviews!

I love Japanese fiction and it sounded like this story included everything I love - magical realism, time travel and complex relationships. It's so original - a hidden cafe where people can travel back (and perhaps forward) in time to revisit conversations. Whatever happens they cannot change the future but perhaps they can change how they felt about the event in question.

I struggled with the book at first - I didn't enjoy the writing style. However as it's a translation I persevered for the sake of the original author. Luckily I was quickly sucked into the story and the way it was written didn't matter as much.

The characters were wonderful and I enjoyed how the chapters could almost stand alone as individual short stories. I would recommend this if you're looking for something short, light but meaningful and want to add a little magic to your day.

I have to admit, the story is somewhat odd and whimsical, which really takes some getting used to. The getting used to lasts for about 100 pages though, which is half of the book, so not the best indication… The narrative is divided into four tales about different people who all decide to travel back into the past for certain reasons. These all tie in nicely and create a very specific ambience for which I just can’t find a fitting word. Quirky, mellow, wholesome – something similar, but all mushed up together.

I did get attached to the story and some of the characters towards the end of the book. It was incredibly wholesome and eye-watering at times. Overall, I really did enjoy the story, but not the presentation, translation or narration.

Full review: https://bit.ly/2l5eljf

'When you return to the past, you must drink the entire cup before the coffee goes cold.'
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Set in an underground coffee shop in Japan, customers visit in the hope of returning to the past. Several rules apply, the past cannot me altered, you cannot get up from your chair meaning you can only travel within the confines of the coffee shop. If you stay too long and your drink goes cold you will become a ghost.
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This book was so heartwarming and heartbreaking, so weird and wonderful. Kawaguchi is a genius and cleverly weaves four stories together effortlessly. This novel has been adapted into a play, that I would really love to see now. Highly recommend this to people who want to get lost in this world for a few hours. Time travel and coffee? You can't really go wrong.
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Thanks again to @picadorbooks for the gifted copy, I really enjoyed it!!

I really enjoyed this book. It tells a number of different, very personal tales though the central conceit of a small coffee shop where people can go back in time to interact with the past but will be able to make no changes to the present. Unlike other time travel stories where people are warned to make no changes, in this case they will not be able to affect anything in the present.

What this does is push the stories to be based around the thoughts and experiences of the main characters and forces them to explore their own reasons for wanting to travel in time and the events that are happening in their current lives.

Being a Japanese novel it helps to understand something of Japanese culture, but the translation appears to have been handled with some beautiful language and is a pleasure to read. A genuinely emotional book that i enjoyed immensely.

A heartwarming book, which will definitely appeal to people that like Japanese literature.
It's a perfect read for a cozy fall evening, and although the narrative is a bit slow at times, it is a very enjoyable book that I would recommend, if this is your kind of thing.