Before the coffee gets cold: a novel
Author
Series
Before the coffee gets cold volume 1
Publisher
Varies, see individual formats and editions
Publication Date
2020.
Language
English
Appears on these lists
Description
*NOW AN LA TIMES BESTSELLER**OVER ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD**AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER*If you could go back in time, 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?Meet more wonderful characters in the rest of the captivating Before the Coffee Gets Cold series:
- Tales from the Cafe
- Before Your Memory Fades
- Before We Say Goodbye
- Before We Forget Kindness
More Details
Contributors
ISBN
9781335430991
9781488077210
9781488209536
9781488077210
9781488209536
Appears on these lists
Similar Series From Novelist
NoveList provides detailed suggestions for series you might like if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
These moving, leisurely-paced literary fiction novels (translated into English) both portray individuals struggling with inner turmoil that involves doppelgangers (Septology) and time travel (Before the Coffee Gets Cold). -- Andrienne Cruz
Although the melancholy, slightly dystopian Visit is bleaker in tone than the uplifting, magical realist Coffee, both of these series' inventive explorations of time and thematically related characters will appeal to readers drawn to unconventional, genre-bending novels. -- Michael Shumate
While Before the Coffee's plotlines rely on a touch of magic and the power of Kamogawa Food Detectives lies in the sleuthing of its title characters, both of these engaging series will appeal to readers of heartfelt translated fiction. -- Basia Wilson
Readers may catch themselves longing for a cozy seat at Before the Coffee's cafe or wishing to visit Cerulean's enchanted island when reading these series. Both are feel-good series whose magical elements inspire hope. -- Basia Wilson
These feel-good and character-driven gentle reads follow the moving adventures of the residents of an Edinburgh apartment house (44 Scotland Street) and visitors bonding in a Tokyo neighborhood cafe (Before the Coffee Gets Cold). -- Andrienne Cruz
These moving series by Japanese authors appeal to fans of easygoing and emotionally rewarding reads led by protagonists who receive a new lease on life after relocating (Forest Novels) and bouts of time travel (Before the Coffee). -- Basia Wilson
These slice-of-life stories that unfold in prose (Before the Coffee Gets Cold) and graphic novel format (Since I Could Die Tomorrow) feature likeable Japanese characters reflecting on pivotal emotional moments of their lives. -- Andrienne Cruz
These series have the genre "literary fiction"; and the subject "loss."
These series have the appeal factors bittersweet, and they have the themes "coping with death" and "time slip"; the genres "magical realism" and "literary fiction"; and the subjects "time travel," "loss," and "coping."
Similar Titles From NoveList
NoveList provides detailed suggestions for titles you might like if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
NoveList recommends "Cerulean chronicles" for fans of "Before the coffee gets cold". Check out the first book in the series.
NoveList recommends "Forest novels (Shion Miura)" for fans of "Before the coffee gets cold". Check out the first book in the series.
NoveList recommends "44 Scotland Street" for fans of "Before the coffee gets cold". Check out the first book in the series.
NoveList recommends "Visit from the Goon Squad" for fans of "Before the coffee gets cold". Check out the first book in the series.
These touching novels center on time slips, families, and choices. In the whimsical science fiction story Oona, a woman begins every January in a non-sequential year. In the literary novel, Before the Coffee, café diners briefly revisit their pasts. -- Alicia Cavitt
Set in contemporary Japan, both quirky and hopeful translated novels include speculative elements -- magical realism Coffee features characters who patronize a café where they can travel through time; fantasy Cat stars a talking cat who defends a secondhand bookstore. -- Kaitlin Conner
A unique cup of joe (Before the Coffee) and a carefully prepared meal (Food Detectives) offer characters a key to the past in these engaging Japanese novels in translation. -- Basia Wilson
These engaging novels center on relationships and choices. Both Library's science fiction story and Coffee's literary novel feature magical settings: a Japanese coffee shop where patrons can revisit their past and a library of infinite books revealing alternative life paths. -- Alicia Cavitt
Flawed characters seeking to repair troubled relationships or make amends revisit the past in engaging novels. In Landline, an American couple communicates through a magical telephone. In Before the Coffee, Japanese coffee shop customers briefly time travel to their past. -- Alicia Cavitt
In these moving stories in translation, characters are granted a chance at the impossible thanks to a time-traveling cafe in Tokyo (Before the Coffee Gets Cold) and a magical kiosk on the streets of Cairo (Shubeik Lubeik). -- Basia Wilson
These immersive and surrealist literary translations explore human behavior in evocative Japanese settings. Lives intersect with the paranormal in the character-driven short stories of Blind Willow. Brief time-traveling excursions allow characters to relive emotional moments in Before the Coffee. -- Alicia Cavitt
These moving and engaging Japanese translated novels feature figurative (What You Are Looking For) and literal (Before the Coffee Gets Cold) magical places where people find life-changing experiences. -- Andrienne Cruz
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These authors' works have the genres "magical realism" and "literary fiction"; and the subjects "time travel," "options, alternatives, choices," and "loss."
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These authors' works have the appeal factors moving, and they have the genres "magical realism" and "literary fiction"; and the subjects "loss," "interpersonal relations," and "regret."
These authors' works have the appeal factors moving, and they have the genres "literary fiction" and "mainstream fiction"; and the subjects "options, alternatives, choices," "loss," and "regret."
These authors' works have the genre "literary fiction"; and the subjects "loss" and "interpersonal relations."
These authors' works have the appeal factors bittersweet and lyrical, and they have the genres "magical realism" and "literary fiction"; and the subjects "options, alternatives, choices," "loss," and "interpersonal relations."
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These authors' works have the appeal factors lyrical and stream of consciousness, and they have the genre "literary fiction"; and the subjects "families," "family relationships," and "japanese people."
These authors' works have the genre "literary fiction"; and the subjects "options, alternatives, choices," "young women," and "japanese people."
These authors' works have the genre "literary fiction"; and the subjects "options, alternatives, choices," "loss," and "interpersonal relations."
These authors' works have the genres "literary fiction" and "mainstream fiction"; and the subjects "loss," "interpersonal relations," and "regret."
Published Reviews
Publisher's Weekly Review
Japanese playwright Kawaguchi's evocative English-language debut is set in a tiny Tokyo café where time travel is possible. In four connected tales, lovers and family members take turns sitting in the chair that allows a person to travel back in time for only as long as it takes a single cup of coffee to cool. In "Husband and Wife," a nurse goes back in time to visit her husband before his Alzheimer's erased her from his memory; in "The Sisters," a woman visits her younger sister, who died in an accident while trying to visit her, to apologize for not seeing her. Kawaguchi's characters embark on lo-fi, emotional journeys unburdened by the technicalities often found in time travel fiction--notably, they are unable to change the present. The characters learn, though, that even though people don't return to a changed present, they return "with a changed heart." Kawaguchi's tender look at the beauty of passing things, adapted from one of his plays, makes for an affecting, deeply immersive journey into the desire to hold onto the past. This wondrous tale will move readers. (Nov.)
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Publishers Weekly Reviews
Japanese playwright Kawaguchi's evocative English-language debut is set in a tiny Tokyo café where time travel is possible. In four connected tales, lovers and family members take turns sitting in the chair that allows a person to travel back in time for only as long as it takes a single cup of coffee to cool. In "Husband and Wife," a nurse goes back in time to visit her husband before his Alzheimer's erased her from his memory; in "The Sisters," a woman visits her younger sister, who died in an accident while trying to visit her, to apologize for not seeing her. Kawaguchi's characters embark on lo-fi, emotional journeys unburdened by the technicalities often found in time travel fiction—notably, they are unable to change the present. The characters learn, though, that even though people don't return to a changed present, they return "with a changed heart." Kawaguchi's tender look at the beauty of passing things, adapted from one of his plays, makes for an affecting, deeply immersive journey into the desire to hold onto the past. This wondrous tale will move readers. (Nov.)
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