Before the Coffee Gets Cold

A Novel

De: Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Narrado por: Arina Ii

Duración: 6 h y 52 m

Resumen del Editor

Over One Million Copies Sold

Now an International Best Seller

If you could go back, who would you want to meet?

In a small back alley of Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than 100 years. Local legend says that this shop offers something else besides coffee - the chance to travel back in time.

Over the course of one summer, four customers visit the café in the hopes of making that journey. But time travel isn’t so simple, and there are rules that must be followed. Most important, the trip can last only as long as it takes for the coffee to get cold.

Heartwarming, wistful, mysterious, and delightfully quirky, Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s internationally best-selling novel explores the age-old question: What would you change if you could travel back in time?

©2020 Toshikazu Kawaguchi (P)2020 Harlequin Audio

Fun concept hamstrung by poor writing.

A fun concept hamstrung by very poor writing and possibly a poor translation. It's very clear when author is writing about things they don't understand and didn't bother to fact check, this makes the characters and setting feel very hollow.

Simple and so entertaining

I found this to be such a joyful book to listen to. It was a beautifully written stories with decisions that were thoughtfully planned out. This book had every opportunity to be a tedious and annoying book, but it absolutely was not. It was well written and really put yourself in the character’s situation and wonder, what would I do? This book was such a pleasure to listen to.

really interesting unique take on time travel

This was a unique read. Time travel is a well used theme in stories and often times the stories take on a similar template and you kind of know the direction it will take. But this, this was different. This little coffee shop in Japan offered this serious opportunity to travel back in time for as long as the coffee stays warm.

The rules to the time travel opportunities were really different too. It drives home the question of "what would you do if you could go back to a time in your past" Why would you go and what would you hope to accomplish.

The characters were quirky as was the setting. You don't get much development outside of the coffee shop but the characters who frequent it bring the life to it.

Being American and not familiar with too many Japanese names I found it a bit hard to follow the names of the characters at times as some of them sounded similar and without seeing the name on paper to differentiate it from the next you really had to pay attention to the goings on of the characters to follow who was who.

It's a fresh and different take on a overused theme. I liked it.

Very thought provoking

I wasn't expecting to read what I read. I think I was expecting something more whimsical and science-laced. There was none if that here. However, this wasn't at all a bad read and I pushed through to the finish, despite its slow build-up.

crushing and beautiful

this book made me laugh and weep. it's beautiful and will stay with me for a long time

Amazing story

I loved this story. I am amazed how the story resonates within my own life.

Lost in translation

I did not love this book. It was just ok. I feel like many the heart of the book got lost in translation. It was a decent story line but would get confusing at times. It lacked the heart for me to keep reading the series.

Didn't finish it

couldn't engage; kept trying to. That doesn't mean it's not a good book it may be it's just not a good audible book.

Reading on reading slump (not a good thing to do)

As someone experiencing reading slump, it took me almost two months to finish this one. I should be sad that I read this too slow but no. I actually am happy because finally, after eight months, I got to finish a book.

I've asked quite a few people on how to deal with reading slump and most answered that I just have to wait. That this will eventually get away in time. So I waited months but nothing happened. Eventually, I noticed that of course, nothing will happen if I don't do anything. So I started this.

When I first read this on ebook, I barely finished a page or two. My mind just kept wandering around but later on, I forced myself and to my surprise, I finished a quarter of this with just one sitting! Unfortunately and fortunately, I read the second quarter and obviously, I had a hard time continuing but I passed through.

Then I figured out that maybe listening to audiobook will help and it did! Within a week, I finished the remaining half of the story and it felt so nice.

Moving on to the actual review. (I got too carried away talking.)

I thought that the book that'll get me out of reading slump is something light or maybe too great. But this one weren't. It was just an okay book. But what does this have that pulled me out of misery? I don't know. Maybe it is the time traveling part. Or that I cried on the first half so I kind of had the urge to know if the second half will make me again.

The book is good. I enjoyed the four stories. I don't know if the last part was considered a twist because it was already obvious that the pretty kid who visited the café on the present time was Nagare and Kei's child. There were confusing parts but most (not all) got answered along the way. And yes, that's it. I'm hoping for Kazu's story on the second book.

Charming

Thought provoking, interesting. Really a collection of short stories with a common thread. Brilliant structure.