Notes from the Shelf

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Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (translated by Geoffrey Trousselot) is a 213-page book focusing on four characters. There’s some magical realism involved, but it is primarily contemporary fiction. It’s also the first book in a series. Within the book there are four short stories, each story focusing on one of the characters, but all of the characters intertwine between stories, which I really enjoyed. It is a slower paced book, but I found it to be a cozy read, although I recognize the slower pacing isn’t for everyone.

The idea is there is a café in a small back alley in Tokyo. Within this café, you can travel in time, but you cannot leave the chair when you time travel. Also, you only have until the coffee gets cold. If you don’t go back to the present before the coffee gets cold, you will get stuck between the past and present and essentially become a ghost.

One of the rules for going back in time is the present doesn’t change no matter what you do, so some people who went to the café to time travel were at first despondent that nothing in their current time would change. However, just going back to be able to say something that was maybe unsaid the first time or to see a person again after they’re gone helped them find hope again. You could tell each character had changed as a person when they arrived back in the present, even though none of their circumstances changed.

I really liked that because your perspective is a huge influence on your feelings during a situation and how you view your life overall, so even though their situation didn’t change and they were upset before they went back, they learned something about themselves and the person they wanted to see that was able to shift their perspective, and they were happier in their present moment now. Overall I thought it was a very hopeful story, and we kind of need that more.

I give Before the Coffee Gets Cold 5 stars.

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