The book is divided into four sections, with each having a different focus. Most people have regrets and can remember times in their past when they wish they’d said something different, or said anything at all, and Kawaguchi has created a little world where it’s possible to change this, and where the chance to replay scenes is more than just wishful thinking. The book has apparently been a huge success in Japan, and you can see why as the concept is fascinating. As we’ll find out, there’s a harsh price to pay for not drinking your coffee up before it gets cold…īefore the Coffee Gets Cold began life as a play before being turned into a novel, and there’s also been a recent film adaptation (with the English title of Café Funiculi Funicula). She mentioned it like an afterthought, as if she were merely talking to herself. “There’s a time limit,” Kazu said, keeping her eyes on the glass she was wiping. “What else was there?” she asked Kazu, as she moved her count to her fifth finger. “There’s only one seat that allows you to go back in time, OK? And, while in the past, you can’t move from that seat,” Hirai said. Changing the present simply isn’t possible, and there are several other rules that must be followed: However, anyone hoping to prevent disasters will soon be disappointed. Yet there’s something very special about the café – you see, if you want to, you can travel in time…Īs bizarre as it may sound, there’s a special seat in the café, and once a day, when the right moment arrives, anyone wishing to take a trip can sit down, name a time, have a coffee poured and time travel. It’s a quiet place, small and rather old-fashioned, and the owners, Nagare and Kei, along with the young waitress Kazu, generally spend relaxing days attending to the needs of the few customers who drop by. Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s Before the Coffee Gets Cold (translated by Geoffrey Trousselot, review copy courtesy of Picador) is set in a basement café called ‘Funiculi Funicula’ located down a dark Tokyo alleyway. You wouldn’t want to linger too long over your drink here – there are some serious consequences for staying in your seat for too long… Today’s review features another intriguing and slightly odd book to add to that list, with a story taking us off to Tokyo, and a coffee shop that offers a lot more than a quiet place to sip your mocha. Examples of this include Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman, Yukiko Motoya’s The Lonesome Bodybuilder and, well, just about anything by Banana Yoshimoto.
It might be the Murakami effect, but when it comes to the Japanese literature that makes it into English, you’re rarely short of something a little, shall we say, quirky.
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