Book Review
Title: Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (Before the Coffee Gets Cold Book 1)
Genre: Science Fiction, Literary Fiction, Translation
Rating: 5 Stars
I have read Before the Coffee gets Cold once before and really enjoyed it but recently I managed to get my hands on both Tales From The Café and Before Your Memory Fades, books 2 & 3. There are two more books in this series but they haven’t been translated into English yet. These books are laid out as a series of interconnected short stories centred around a café in Tokyo called Funiculi Funicula. The first story is The Lovers and focuses on the couple, Fumiko and Goro. Their story begins when they are at the café having a conversation about their future, Fumiko is under the impression that Goro is finally going to propose but is hit instead with the news that he is leaving from America to take his dream job there. In that moment Fumiko tells him to go even though it isn’t what she wanted to say but her pride wouldn’t let her speak the truth. Goro ends up doing just that leaves but a week later Fumiko returns to the café having learnt of the rumours it allows you to travel through time. Fumiko is speaking to a regular customer Yaeko Hirai when she brings the topic up and Kazu explains it further to her. Kazu is the cousin of the owners, Kei and Nagare and explains the rules to Fumiko.
The first rule she is told is one that breaks her heart since nothing said or done in the past can affect the present which seemingly defeats the purpose of travelling through time. There are many more rules like you can’t leave the café and only one seat allows you to travel through time but the most important rule is that you have to drink your coffee before it goes cold or else you will be stuck in the café as a ghost and there is a woman in the café who is proof of that consequence. Fumiko still decides to travel even if she can’t change anything and the process is relatively simple. She lands in the week before and has her conversation over with Goro where she learns that it was his dream job and despite being together for years he never felt good enough for her and wanted to be better while she felt like he was abandoning her and not considering her feelings on the matter. Goro tells her if she waits for three years he will come back to her and continue their life together. When she returns to the present despite having changed nothing in the present, Fumiko feels more secure and wants to speak with Goro and explain her previous actions as she is willing to wait for him now she knows how he truly feels.
Husband & Wife is the second story and honestly brought tears to my eyes again and this story belongs to Fusagi and Kohtake. Fusagi is a regular customer at the café and wants to travel through time but he often just ends up sitting at the café all day with his travel magazine until Kohtake, a local nurse, comes to pick him up. We soon learn that Fusagi has early onset Alzheimer’s and Kohtake is actually his wife but he has recently lost his memory of her which is why he refers to her by her maiden name and this is a shock for Kohtake even though she knew it was coming. It is actually Kazu who finds out why Fusagi wants to travel through time and he claims it is to give a letter to his wife.
Kohtake doesn’t believe this at first because she knows that Fusagi was basically illiterate when they met and even now he can’t read and write well enough to construct a letter. However, she decides to travel through time anyway and lands just before she found out about Fusagi’s illness but he already knows about it. In the end she is honest and asks him if there is anything he wants to give her after he works out she is from the future. He does pass a letter on to her which breaks her heart when she reads it as in it Fusagi asks her to leave him if he ever forgets she is his wife which he has because he doesn’t want her to be his nurse, he wants to love her as his wife until the end. Kohtake doesn’t do this in fact, she does the opposite as she encourages the staff and regulars at the café to refer to her by her married name again so she can constant remind her husband of who she is and what she means to him.
The Sisters is the story that belongs to Yaeko Hirai and her sister, we already know from what we have seen that Yaeko isn’t close with her family because she didn’t want to inherit the family’s inn and starting her own bar in Tokyo instead. Her sister does visit the café once to write a letter for her sister but Yaeko decides not to take it from Kazu and not to read it. It turns out after that visit Kumi was involved in a car accident and died. Suddenly, this throws everything into perspective for Yaeko who upon returning from the funeral wants to go back and have that final conversation with her sister before she dies.
Kei uses her knowledge of the ghost lady in order to force her to go to the bathroom so that Yaeko can go back. The second she arrives, Kei knows she is from the future and seconds later Kumi enters and sees Yaeko waiting for her. For the first time in years, the sisters just sit and talk, Kumi confesses that she wasn’t mad because Yaeko didn’t want to inherit the family inn but because her dream of running the inn with her big sister wouldn’t come true. Learning this and realising that everything Yaeko thought Kumi would think after she left was wrong, she makes her a promise to run the inn with her. When her time is almost up Kazu urges Yaeko to drink her coffee but she wants to see Kumi one more time but isn’t able to but Kei saves her by telling Kumi that Yaeko will keep her promise and she does going to mend the bridges with her parents, learn to run the inn and live her sister’s dream.
The final story in this first volume is Mother & Child and if I remember correctly this has to do with the mysterious girl from the future that came back in order to take a picture with Kei. It turns out that Kei is pregnant but because of her weak heart she is struggling with the changes to her body. Kei is advised by her doctor not to continue with the pregnancy as the chance of both her and the child surviving are slim to none but she refuses wanting to bring her child into the world. As the effects get worse Kei still refuses to go to the hospital because she feels that if she goes in she is never going to come out again but when she sees the worrying of her family she decides to go. However, before she does she wants to travel into the future to see her child properly as she knows she will never get the chance otherwise. Kazu helps her do this but the dates get mixed up so she doesn’t get to see Kazu or Nagare as they are out of town but she does get to meet her daughter, Miki.
At first the atmosphere around them is awkward as neither knows what to say but when Fumiko arrives this changes. Mother and daughter get to have a brief conversation before Kei has to head back to her own time, Miki explains that she has been sad throughout the years without her mother but she is glad that she was brought into the world. Kei also realises that even though she isn’t around, Miki has a lot of people around her who love her and that is enough for Kei. Upon returning Kei checks into the hospital and later gives birth to a baby girl even though it is at the cost of her own life. This final story broke my heart and almost brought me tears the same way it did the first time I read this book and I honestly can’t wait to read the next two books in this series.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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