📚☕️ Book Review ☕️📚
Title: Before the Coffee Gets Cold
Author: Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Translated by Geoffrey Trousselot
Publisher: Hanover Square Press
Genre: Contemporary Fiction/Magical Realism/Japanese Lit
Before the Coffee Gets Cold was published in 2019, so I’ve seen it floating around for quite some time. Somehow, I ended my 2023 reading with either books about books, carefully crafted stories that made you think if you wanted a do-over in life, and translated stories, mostly from Japan.
So what can you expect in this one? Beautiful stories, a simple execution that pulls you in, fun time travel, somewhat tragic, heartfelt, full of empathy, and at the end of the day inspiring. I don’t know what it is about Japanese Literature, but I often find it to feel like a warm hug!
This book is essential 4 shorter stories with the common thread the cafe, the servers there, and knowing that this is a special cafe that will take you to back in time. But the rules are simple: no matter what happens you can’t change the outcome and you have to drink the cup of coffee and finish before it gets cold. Those that don’t become a ghost forever seated at the table in the cafe.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 I really enjoyed this and will be continuing on as there as 3 more books now in the series. Pro tip: if your library does hoopla you can borrow it as an ebook on there!
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