Before the Coffee Gets Cold is a sweet, short novel about a very special cafe in Tokyo that allows people to go back to their past. There are, however, three rules - you can only go back in the past to meet someone who has visited the cafe, you must sit in a particular seat in the cafe while doing so and you must drink your coffee during your time travel window before it gets cold.

This was a very sweet novel that's very much about the different characters who frequent the cafe almost every day, as well as the reasons why some people we meet decide to go back to the past. Family, love, and different types of loss are the main reasons behind people's decisions to time travel and we see them explored in different ways and a huge array of emotions felt by all of our characters during them.

There's definitely some bittersweet lessons in this story about not being able to change the true outcomes of our actions, and therefore perhaps living each moment as we would always want to and appreciating those who show us kindness and bring something special to our lives.

A very nice read for a rainy day, and perhaps the perfect book to read while drinking a hot beverage

I found this to be a very engaging book. I found it a little slow to start but once I became used to the pace of the book I loved every minute of it. It is an engaging book. The premise is simple but develops well with the story.
There are a lot of little details which carry the reader through. I loved the ending and would highly recommend this book..

An intriguing read that fizzled out in the end.
When I originally stumbled upon “Before the Coffee Gets Cold” I was a little intrigued and immediately requested a copy via @NetGalley. I hear this has already been turned into a film in Asia and I sound mind watching it!

A coffee shop in one of the side streets of Tokyo, where patrons could travel back in time in order to revisit past moments (just a few minutes before a coffee in front of them gets cold!) - what a base for a story! It’s a premise with a lot of promise, and suggested the potential for a thoughtful exploration of the human heart, with a Japanese twist.

Unfortunately, the end result doesn’t measure up to the promise of that. Even though I did quite enjoy the book, it left me slightly disappointed.

Extra praise for a subtle humour of the author!

With many thanks to the publisher and @NetGalley for providing the book for free in exchange for a fair review.

Liked this so much I actually went out a bought a physical copy from my local independent. I thought Before the Coffee Gets Cold was such a sweet, quirky and charming book that it definitely deserved another reading or two in the not too distant future.

Suspect some people may not care for the lack of action but the premise and choices the author made were kept me more than entertained and provided me with a nice bit of escapism.

Recommended.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

I've loved discovering translated Japanese fiction this year so had high hopes for this to be another quirky reading experience, but for some reason it just didn't feel as magical to me as I hoped it would! It has all the elements of a mysterious cafe and time travelling experiences but it just fell a little flat for me and I didn't feel connected with it as I'd hoped.

Set in a basement cafe set off the beaten track, it's a story that follows a few characters as they find themselves there for whatever reason as they've heard of this 'legend' that if you sit in a certain seat in the cafe, you can be transported back in time to meet someone from your past. There are a number of very important rules that need to be followed for it to work but that doesn't put off these characters as they are desperate to go back to have one more moment in a certain point in their life - but the present cannot change. Call it the butterfly effect if you will.

There are some very emotional and poignant reasons for wanting to go back - from a woman who let a love walk out of her life, to a woman losing her husband to alzheimers - and reading their stories makes you understand why they wanted to go back. And what it shows is that going back alters their mindset - maybe things happened for a reason and you are left thinking that sometimes things are just meant to be and to happen in the way they did.

I did enjoy this story and it was quite enlightening but I did find at times it felt more like I was reading a play script as the flow just wasn't there throughout. A sweet read.

A sweet and charming book, for the full review go to https://joebloggshere.tumblr.com/post/187807552021/before-the-coffee-gets-cold-by-toshikazu

What’s it About?
So there's this coffee shop where you can go back in time, except only if you sit in one chair, which you can't leave, and you have to be back in the present before the coffee gets cold. This book is the story of people who have sat in that chair.

What I liked:
I am such a sucker for translations for the Japanese; they seem, to me, to be drenched in whimsy and I am so here for it. I loved this. It's quirky and clever and the story gave me all the feels. I smiled, I had a lump in my throat, full emotional range, guys. I loved it. I feel like I could wax lyrical about this one for a while - it's such a unique, clever, lovely book.
What I liked less:
I didn't want it to end. So good. I didn't want it to be end, and yet somehow it was perfect for being so short.

When I originally read the synopsis for this book I was more than a little intrigued by the premise it presented. A coffee shop in the heart of Tokyo, where patrons could travel back in time in order to revisit past loves or spend one last moment with a lost family member, or even to meet the daughter they never knew. It’s a premise with a lot of promise, and suggested the potential for a refreshingly thoughtful exploration of the human condition which is often absent from a lot of modern fiction. Unfortunately, the end result doesn’t quite measure up to the promise of that synopsis, and I’ll admit this has slightly disappointed me.

The narrative is broken up into four primary tales, each of which is told primarily from the point of view of that tale’s time traveller. The time travel itself is enacted by sitting in a specific chair in the coffee shop and being poured a cup of coffee from a special pot. The chair in question is normally occupied by the ghost of an unnamed woman and there are several rules that each traveller must conform to in order to complete their trip. Indeed, the book’s title references the most important of the rules, that the traveller must finish their cup of coffee before it gets cold, thereby triggering the return journey, or be trapped forever as the ghost in the chair. While the rules seem a little arbitrary and contrived, it’s fairly easy to see why the author’s set them up in this way as a means to limit the scope of each of the mini vignettes he’s presenting. This conceit results in tales that are most definitely focused on the character rather than the action, providing a wonderfully tight view of the changes in each of the principle characters when they return to the present.

The set up to the tales often feels like directions for a stage play, from the small scale of the setting to the way in which every action and every detail is meticulously laid out, but that’s hardly surprising given that the author is first and foremost a stage writer and this novel is an adaptation from one of his plays. If you’re comfortable reading stage plays then you’ll have no problem getting to grips with this one.

Unfortunately, the whimsy and focus of the narrative are let down somewhat by the prose itself. Now, I don’t read a huge number of translated works, but nor am I a complete novice in that respect, so I’m reasonably confident when I say the biggest problem I’m having with this book is the translation itself. The core tale itself is delightfully whimsical, and the characters are nicely presented, their individual personalities showing through despite the linguistic acrobatics taking place. It’s almost as if the translator is trying too hard to make the English language edition read as if it’s still being presented in Japanese, which is jarring even when you’re familiar with the differences between Japanese and English syntax and grammar. I feel as though the translation truly doesn’t do justice to the narrative, and that’s a shame because I feel this book could have been so much more satisfying to read with a different translation.

If I’m rating the novel itself than I’d give it a full four stars, but the translation brings it down. Making allowances for the translation, I’d have to settle on three and a half stars.

Frankly I found this a bit tedious focused on rather sentimental or simplistic feelings. A cafe one character happens to go to becomes a cafe of time travel with many (often repeated ) rules about this travel. Eventually she persuades the owner and others hanging in the cafe to travel to the future . A rather affecting scene between mother and child takes place. The rules being broken make it all a bit airless for me. Very clever and feel good in the end .. I can see its appeal however...

I liked the idea- still do- but I did not like the execution of it. It seemed very choppy,flitting from one thing to another,and I just couldn't relate to any of the characters. A pity as the idea has promise.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC

"But Kazu still goes on believing that, no matter what difficulties people face, they will always have the strength to overcome them. It just takes heart. And if the chair can change someone's heart, it clearly has its purpose."

There are things I could comment on like the translation could have been polished a little bit more, the sci-fi is pretty much just a front etc but I won't. You know why? Because I just loved it, loved every little story, loved the message and loved the quirkiness of it all, so very Japanese!

‘If you could go back, who would you want to meet?’

Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s 2015 novel now gets an English-language publication, translated by Geoffrey Trousselot. It is an utterly charming little piece, quietly moving and with a quirkiness which tends to be a signature of Japanese literature.

In a Tokyo basement café, called Funiculi Funicula, where the temperature inside is always pleasantly cool, there is a seat that is a portal for the willing to time travel. There are, however, several rules to abide by, whether one travels forward or back in time, the most important being that each visit is time-limited until the coffee that is poured at the start gets cold. Stay beyond that and you cease to exist in the real world, becoming a ghost who is destined to sit forever in that seat. Around this premise the author intertwines several stories: a husband who has dementia and forgets his wife; sisters who are estranged since the elder sibling moved away from home; a pregnant woman with a heart condition who has to make a fateful choice whether to go through with the pregnancy. As each story develops the characters literally come and go, the ringing of the bell indicating when someone enters or leaves the café.

Nothing much happens; that is what I love about a lot of Japanese literature, but I can appreciate that some might feel frustrated by it. There are long, lingering descriptions of people making a cup of coffee, and there is a lot of dialogue. It is the atmosphere that matters here, a sense of time passing, the ordinariness of our lives. It is a book about ‘what ifs’: what if you could go back and say the things you meant to say? What if you could meet the child you never knew? What if you could tell the one you love exactly what they mean to you?

This is a gentle, ultimately moving novel. Whilst it may read quite stylised for a western audience, and whilst it may reflect a society that is quite different from our own – the rules for time travel seem very much to suggest a society where conforming is the thing – I believe that there is much here to engage a willing reader. This is the kind of novel that, once you put it down, will make you think about your own life and the choices you make. It is this that makes it a subtle little joy, definitely recommended. 4 stars.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

A beautiful little book. I would liked to have been able to read it in Japanese. The names were difficult to follow at times, but a great little read. I am reading it , with my coffee, in a small coffee shop not dissimilar from the one in the book. (My coffee shop has a seawater well at it's centre). I'm looking around wondering who is sitting in The Chair. Should I ask the waitress?

It's always enlightening to read translations of novels from other cultures and Before the Coffee Gets Cold is no exception. The setting is a below street level coffee shop which has gone largely unchanged for 100 years. A lady, sits alone at one of the very few tables quietly drinking her coffee and reading a novel. Only when she goes to the loo can someone else sit in her seat. And then the magic begins. The person, in that seat, can time-travel subject to strict rules but the duration of their visit is restricted to the time it takes for their freshly poured cup of coffee to go cold. Kawaguchi takes us through a series of cameos in which each participant has a deeply personal reason to re-visit another time. Each trip is fraught with emotion, yet each participant is unfailingly courteous and gentle throughout their experience. When they return to the present day, leave the table and pay for their coffee they find they view the world differently. Their short trip hasn't, of course, changed the present day world at all. It has only changed the way they see it. Kawaguchi is perhaps gently telling us to think carefully how we use time as, in the real world, there is no re-wind button. A charming novel which leaves you with much to think about.

This is an interesting book that centres around time travel from a particular coffee shop. But there are many conditions attached to the time travel. Those who wish to travel back in time seem frustrated by these rules. It is divided into several short stories, although the characters appear in each of the stories, but depending on who is taking centre stage, as they become the focal point of each story. I found it rather moving in places.

I thought this sounded like an absolutely beautiful novel, and I was so excited to read it. Unfortunately, it just lacked any real emotion or engagement for me - I struggled through it, and didn't really connect with it, or enjoy it that much even. I will say though, I do think that it was let down by a poor translation, as I have a friend who read it in the original Japanese who said that it was incredibly moving and beautiful in its writing. I think us English readers were just provided with a poor mans version of a novel that in its own language would have been far superior.

This book had a really interesting concept, drawing me in. But, I think the main issue is translation, as it didn't spark much emotion in me. I loved the cafe concept. The last story was the best.
I wish I could read it in its original language.
It was a good book, but it didn't reach up to be great and impactful.

Thanks a lot to the publisher and Netgalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was charmed by the idea and found many things to like in the novel.
It's imaginative, as good time travel tales are. There are fun bits and ingenious bits. The time travel mechanics are well handled and plausible. I particularly liked the fact that there are few explanations - the time travel simply happens without any origin story or pseudoscience. I admired the writer's confidence in deciding that explanations weren't necessary.
My one complaint is that it seems thinly spread - I'm sure it could have been accomplished in about half the space. As a reading experience, I wasn't too keen - I found my mind wandering from page to page. But as a quirky and entertaining collection of ideas, it definitely hit the mark and I'm sure my thoughts will return to it from time to time.

Who knew our shelves needed – or would actually provide – a Japanese Mitch Albom, featuring a singular coffee bar that has only nine covers, but one amongst those nine that can send you back in time to see your loved ones in the past? I came here because I could sense a bit of the Albom DNA, and I got what I wanted. So that meant I had inherently easy and readable storytelling, great characters, and a peculiar situation being utilised to show us the glory of love, togetherness and all those other yummy emotions. The world of the cafe is certainly well evoked, and the bizarre rules concerning the magical seat and ritual for time travel are used well, too. It's great to see what it means to be able to visit the past but not to be able to change one iota of the present. It tries to have a little too much time travel, for me, in that the author certainly never lets a chance for a flashback go to waste, but this is still really good fun. But the emotions at the end – well, it's not customary to call that fun. But it's overwhelming, and enough to counter all the small flaws, and the repetitions. For all his merits, Richard Curtis will never have this kind of emotional impact if he keeps on shoving dipshit sidekicks into stories – but he's the kind of man to get this filmed. A must read.

The blurb made this book sound like it would be a great read. Unfortunately, it failed on almost every level. The writing, or rather the poor writing style really let the book down. At times I felt like I was reading a play rather than a novel. A lot of unnecessary time is spent setting up the coffee shop and the characters. I started to get bored only a few pages in which is not a good sign. There is far too much explanation, pages and pages of it and no space is given for you to make up your own mind or use your brain. The fact the book uses one setting, the coffee shop, also let it down. I found this very restrictive. I got no real sense of any of the characters. They were flat and bland like puppets. The dialogue was dull and stilted. Also, the book is not really about time travel but regrets and things not said or done until it was too late. I don’t like being lead to believe a book is about time travel only to discover this is only a sort of metaphor. Poor form.