before the coffee gets cold: a novel by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Forty-first book of 2020

Reading period: May 20th 2020 – May 23rd 2020

Summary

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

In a small back alley of Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. Local legend says that this shop offers something else besides coffee—the chance to travel back in time.

Over the course of one summer, four customers visit the café in the hopes of making that journey. But time travel isn’t so simple, and there are rules that must be followed. Most important, the trip can last only as long as it takes for the coffee to get cold.

Heartwarming, wistful, mysterious and delightfully quirky, Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s internationally bestselling novel explores the age-old question: What would you change if you could travel back in time? 

Many thanks to Edelweiss, Hanover Square Press to send me a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Rating

Review

Usually, I am not into time travel story, but this one catches my attention.

I don’t regret reading it. These stories were heartwarming and at the same time, heartbreaking. With the help of time travel, they change how they perceive their relationship and their life. The coffee dives them in a resilience state.

The writing has a certain elegance and calm. I also like the fact that the cafe is like a family. The only thing that I would have wanted to know is the story of the ghost.

This edition of the book will be available on the 17th of November 2020.

Liz.