Before the Coffee Gets Cold

A Novel

By: Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Narrated by: Arina Ii

Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

Intriguing

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

An Enjoyable Cup of Coffee Awaits

This was very good. I wasn’t sure what to expect but found myself captivated by the character’s stories and the setting. This also shows that our assumptions or judgments of people and situations can be wildly off mark. Very thought provoking. The narration seemed a bit slower than what I am used to and while one can speed things up, I ended up feeling that it helped to draw me into the story more. Well done. Don’t expect a fast pace sci-fi time travel story. This is one you will want to take your time to enjoy and have a cup of coffee with.

Unnecessarily Frustrating

This collection of stories left me unsatisfied. It didn't live up to its potential. I liked the characters, and the premise was promising, but it needed to be fleshed out more. I have unanswered questions, such as (spoiler alert)...

Why couldn't they have refilled the cup? ...or used a different one that would cool more slowly? ...or covered it?

Why was it necessary to drink it at all, if leaving the seat would return you to the present just as well? I kept waiting for someone to outsmart the system.

Why didn't they always use the thermometer? What temperature was the official boundary for "cool?"

Why didn't anyone plan better before time-traveling?

What was the deal with the ghost lady? And the 3 clocks? And the fact that it was always climate-controlled without the need for an a/c unit?

If it's a cheap ploy to get me to read the sequel, I feel manipulated.