Scan barcode
A review by teavani
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
3.0
3.8
read in 2 days
a collection of 4 tales from a cafe in which visitors can travel through time (as long as they follow a set of prescribed rules). follows the relationships between a woman and her partner who’s leaving the country, a woman who’s husband has dementia, a pair of estranged sisters, and a mother and her future daughter.
- really simple but clear writing without a lot of flowery prose
- beginning introduces a cast of characters that you should pay attention to so you’re not lost when we follow Kazu, Kei, and others
- the caveat is that whatever you do during your time travel doesn’t affect the events in the present. although this may make it seem useless, the book shows that just by making up those regretted last conversations and saying what needed to be said can provide closure and peace in the present, even if the circumstances remain unchanged
read in 2 days
a collection of 4 tales from a cafe in which visitors can travel through time (as long as they follow a set of prescribed rules). follows the relationships between a woman and her partner who’s leaving the country, a woman who’s husband has dementia, a pair of estranged sisters, and a mother and her future daughter.
- really simple but clear writing without a lot of flowery prose
- beginning introduces a cast of characters that you should pay attention to so you’re not lost when we follow Kazu, Kei, and others
- the caveat is that whatever you do during your time travel doesn’t affect the events in the present. although this may make it seem useless, the book shows that just by making up those regretted last conversations and saying what needed to be said can provide closure and peace in the present, even if the circumstances remain unchanged