Before the Coffee Gets Cold – Toshikazu Kawaguchi

It seems that I am just catching up with this series of books, which is also a play and a film. Kawaguchi published this in 2015, with three follow up sequels, a film released in in 2018 and an announcement that a TV series is in the works. 

The story is focussed around an unassuming cafe, in a small street in Tokyo. Certain circumstances will allow you to travel back in time as a customer, with strict caveats that need to be observed. We meet the cafe staff, a husband and wife team with the husband’s sister. We also meet various customers – a woman whose boyfriend split up with her when he took a job overseas, a man who always forgets his wallet, and a bar owner from down the street who really needs to talk to her sister.

While I read this in English (as my Japanese isn’t quite up to scratch yet), I thought the translator did a great job in retaining the tone and feel – the customs, culture and reserved warmth which seems to be so present in Japanese film and writing. 

It’s short and quick to read, but it does ask the difficult questions of the reader. What would you do with more time? Which event in your life would you Groundhog Day back to? Given the risk and the caveats, would you instead just settle for a nice cup of tea and a bun?

I’m still thinking about this a few weeks after I read it, and I’m looking forward to reading the other ones too. I can imagine this as a TV series, and perhaps most suited to an animated set of programmes – in my head it looks like the anime we grew up with, like Eighty Days Around the World. Apologies for putting that earworm in your head!

Recommended for fans of Japanese writing, like Sayuka Murata. 

Thanks to Netgalley and to PanMacmillan, for the DRC, as always.