by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

This was an interesting concept and quirky in the way of Japanese stories in translation. The difference in sentence structure actually serves to place the reader in a Japanese coffee shop.

Apparently it's a second book of a series, but it stands alone just fine! The general premise is that you can travel back in time in a particular coffee shop, though you can't change anything. You are given a cup of coffee and have until the coffee goes cold, at which point you will be pulled back to your natural time. A very original time travel concept!

The character development was good and reminded me of my experience of the Japanese people when I visited Tokyo many years ago. The stories were charming and entertaining for those who enjoy Japanese media.

I had completely missed out on Before the Coffee Gets Cold earlier. But when I was visiting my sister in London (a month ago - but due to Corona quarantines this seems much longer) this book was staring me in the face everywhere. And it had a cat on the cover (spoiler alert: the cat does not feature in the book) and it is about Time Travel (and have I ever been able to resist Time Travel?). Let's say it was not a big surprise when this book ended up in my suitcase to bring home.

If you could travel into time for the duration of one cup of coffee and without a single chance of changing anything in the present, would you?

The little amount of Japanese books I have previously read, made it clear to me that plot is not the main feature of Japanese literature. I read that Before the Coffee Gets Cold was meant as a play, and it reads that way. But I liked it nevertheless, since I like plays. We follow four people who for various reasons take the trip, and the stories are becoming more and more intimate as the book progresses.

There is a lot of repetition, but since I read the four stories on different days (treating them as a short story each), this did not bother me. I was surprised by the amount of emotion that was conveyed through these 200-odd pages. It touched me more than I expected. Do not however, expect to be given an explanation of the time travel, since there is none.

If you do not like ice cream with cold coffee then you need to add sugar syrup along with food essence to store the taste in your coffee.

People who are willing to know how to make cold coffee without ice cream they just need to follow the above-mentioned processes. Just skip the ice cream mixing part with the cold coffee mixture.

I still haven't made it through that story and my tea is very very cold at this point :)