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Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1)

Toshikazu Kawaguchi,

Geoffrey Trousselot (Translator)

Start date: April 1, 2025

Finish date: May 1, 2025

Discussion: 2025 Monthly Group Reads

Why we're reading this: April 2024 group read for "healing fiction"…more
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What Members Thought

Apr 06, 2025 Debbie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is such a delightful, thought-provoking, and entirely un-science-fictiony book about people and time travel. It's not at all what I expected, but I found myself utterly charmed by the premise. There's a cafe in Tokyo where people can go to time travel, but there are rules, and these rules are what make the book different from any other time travel book I've read (and I've read a lot). The biggest one is that nothing changes, no matter what you do or don't do while time traveling. This kind ...more

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Oct 17, 2021 Julia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi-fantasy, audio-books, asian-lit, marginalized-author, read-women-2021

I love the premise of this book, going back/forward in time for just a few minutes (while a cup of coffee cools). I found some sections to be quite repetitive, almost as if it was originally written as a series for a newspaper or magazine -- so we might forget the "rules" between each episode? The beauty of the tales, each heartbreaking yet also uplifting, more than compensated for the repetition. ...more

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Jan 15, 2021 Sharlene rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: japan, ebook, in-translation, asia, library, 2021

“With the coffee in front of her, she closed her eyes, and inhaled deeply. It was her moment of happiness. As per his insistence, the coffee had been made from mocha beans with their distinct aroma, which coffee drinkers either love or hate. Those who enjoy the aroma, like Kohtake, can’t get enough of it. In fact, you could say that the coffee picked the customers.”

A book about time travel. But one with limits. It takes place solely in a cafe. And there are very strict rules. There is one partic “With the coffee in front of her, she closed her eyes, and inhaled deeply. It was her moment of happiness. As per his insistence, the coffee had been made from mocha beans with their distinct aroma, which coffee drinkers either love or hate. Those who enjoy the aroma, like Kohtake, can’t get enough of it. In fact, you could say that the coffee picked the customers.”

A book about time travel. But one with limits. It takes place solely in a cafe. And there are very strict rules. There is one particular seat at the cafe that allows time travel. The person cannot move from the seat. And the time traveler must return before the coffee gets cold (and also drink said coffee).

It all takes place in Cafe Funiculi Funicula (if you aren’t familiar, Funiculì, Funiculà is a song to commemorate the opening of the funicular railway on Mt Vesuvius back in 1880). There are a few regular customers of the cafe which is owned by Kei and Nagare, who are married. Kazu, who is Nagare’s cousin, helps out when she’s not at university. Kazu is the one who has to pour the cup of coffee that allows the time travel.

In this book, there are four time travellers in this book – and also another four in a separate book titled Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales from the Cafe (although known as Before Your Memory Fades in Japan).

It was only after reading the book, then reading a review of it that I learnt that this book was originally a play. That may explain why I wasn’t enamoured with the writing. The writing was fine, nothing to shout about, and you have to put aside your doubts about the way the time travel works (why is it only Kazu who pours the coffee? was a constant question for me!). But I really appreciated the thoughtfulness put into how their stories unfolded, the emotions touched on.

It was a slightly quirky, quick read that doesn’t feel like a quick read. It’s a gently told tale. It made me long for a day when I can finally go sit in a cafe and read a book – no indoor dining or even outdoor dining at the moment in California.

It made me think of the days when I worked at a newspaper in Singapore. I worked odd hours. At first, for the online edition, working the early shift, starting around 6am I think? Then later, sub-editing which meant we put the paper to bed and finished after midnight. Also, that meant I had to always work either Saturdays or Sundays, and had a weekday off. All those weird hours meant I would often find myself having time off but no one to hang out with. I would often take myself out to a cafe, sit down with a book, and enjoy a flat white. ...more

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