Book Review : Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (translated by Geoffrey Trousselot) (Before the Coffee Gets Cold#1)

My Rating: 

3.5⭐

“They were in a windowless basement café. The lighting was provided by just six shaded lamps hanging from the ceiling and a single wall lamp near the entrance. A permanent sepia hue stained the café interior. Without a clock, there was no way to tell whether it was night or day. There were three large antique wall clocks in the café. The arms of each, however, showed different times. Was this intentional? Or were they just broken? Customers on their first visit never understood why the clocks were like this.”

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi features four interwoven stories set in the retro Funiculi Funicula Café in Japan – a café that is not only popular for its aromatic brew but one that is the subject of an urban legend as the “ café that transports you back in time”. 

Time travel, as facilitated by the cafe, is possible but under strict rules and limitations at the center of which (contrary to popular belief influenced by movies and novels) is : “There is nothing you can do while in the past that will change the present.”

One would wonder why then, would someone go back in the past if it would have no visible impact on the present. If your regrets, missed opportunities and mistakes are not undone and your life does not change for the better why would you go to the trouble of embarking on such a journey? As we meet the owners, staff and patrons of this magical café, a few of whom facilitate the journey for others and some who partake in the venture for different reasons -a young professional who believes she has chosen her career over the man she loves, a wife dealing with her husband's Alzheimer’s diagnosis, a woman who is racked by guilt for the way she treated her late sister and an expectant mother who is willing to sacrifice her life to bring her baby into this world- we share their experiences of time-travel and the impact that the same has on them and their lives Ultimately this is a story about love, relationships, sacrifice and the lengths one would go to for the people they care about. 

With its atmospheric setting and imagery, simple prose and elements of magical realism,  Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi is an engaging and thought-provoking read. Though the occasional dispassionate tone and the repetitiveness in the text did bother me slightly, overall I did enjoy the read and look forward to reading the next installment in this series. 

“At the end of the day, whether one returns to the past or travels to the future, the present does not change. So it raises the question: just what is the point of that chair?

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.”