Tales from the Cafe

May 1, 2021

In Kawaguchi's internationally best-selling Before the Coffee Gets Cold, a LibraryReads pick, an underground caf� in Tokyo allows customers to travel back in time--they just have to sit in a particular seat on a particular day, and the journey will last only as long as it takes to down a cup of coffee. This follow-up introduces us to four more time travelers, from a man who revisits a friend deceased for over two decades to a detective who regrets having never given his wife a special gift. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

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November 16, 2021
Expanding the insightful delights introduced in global bestseller Before the Coffee Gets Cold (2020), readers are welcomed back to Funiculi Funicula, Tokyo's time-travel caf�. The rules haven't changed, especially the two most urgent: the temporal seeker must wait for the woman-in-white to vacate her seat (yes, even ghosts seek relief!), and, once the fresh coffee is poured, it must be drunk before it gets cold. Although time can be briefly defied, the present cannot be changed. Repeating the intertwined four-part format in this second volume, four guests are transported backward or forward to meet someone beloved: a bride's father seeks his best friend, a potter his late mother, a dying man his fianc�e, a policeman his beloved wife. And in between visits, the woman-in-white gets her poignant backstory, while singular coffee-pourer Kazu gets her own provenance revealed. Lauded playwright Kawaguchi originally created this for the stage, then turned new novelist to adapt his award-winning play for the page. His prose--English-enabled again by Geoffrey Trousselot--might not be the most elegantly polished, but the book's resonating charm provides lasting emotional balm. Read now, watch later: the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series is getting the Hollywood treatment from the teams behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, among other hits.

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October 1, 2021

This meaningful and emotional sequel to Before the Coffee Gets Cold features four interconnected stories with a broad range of characters. The fascinating premise unfolds in a Tokyo caf� that allows a return to the past, as long as the patrons don't leave their seats and as long as they finish what they need to do before their coffee gets cold. No matter what they do, the caf� patrons cannot change the present; some of them wonder, What's the point of going back in time? As the characters seek and discover the answer to that question, their stories gracefully confront hard topics such as bereavement, despair, parenthood, financial destitution, suicide, miscarriage, and illness. Kawaguchi has found a unique way to manipulate such a commonly used trope as time travel and has captured the power of joy as a legacy. VERDICT These tearful stories hit hard but ultimately lead to a beautiful ending. Fans of Matt Haig's Midnight Library will enjoy this quick read with touches of magical realism and soul-searching.--Andrea Dyba, Oswego P.L. Dist., IL

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.