Before the Coffee Gets Cold

A Novel

By: Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Narrated by: Arina Ii

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.

crushing and beautiful

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

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.

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.

Intriguing

Very interesting story and concept. Worth your time for sure. Will seek more stories from this author.

heartwarming story

easy to read and comfortable. . not to heavy story. this kind of story has no deep insight but make heart warmth and feel emotional connections.

Good stories

The tales were emotional and deep. Truly great writing. There were likely many beautiful parts lost in translation but the depth of the characters was there for sure. One thing I didn’t love was the expositions before the traveling. It somehow felt weak and the fact that it happens for half of each story and some elements (like the rules) were repeated in each one made the stories seem to drag when read together.