Kevin Liu

Every book has a purpose. Some try to warp you to space, others to the past. This review is somewhat special as I will talk about all the five books in the series. As of today, I do not know if it is concluded - to the best of my knowledge, there are no more books at this time.

I did not pick this book up randomly in a bookstore; it was a present from one of my friends, given during the celebration of my 24th birthday. She gave me the first book: "Before the Coffee Gets Cold" by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. The rest of the series (in order) are titled: "Tales from the Cafe", "Before Your Memory Fades", "Before we say goodbye", and "Before we forget kindness."

Each book follows the same format: there are 4 chapters in a book. It's the same underlying setting (with exceptions in a book or two - purposely being vague for people who don't want to be spoiled). Every book has the same concept: at a cafe, there is a seat that allows you to travel through time, with many rules. These rules cannot be broken in any way, or you (basically) die or get cursed. The main conditions that prevent time paradoxes and other such things are 1. the inability to change the present or the future, 2. the inability to move from your seat in the cafe, and 3. you only have time from when a cup of coffee is poured to when it gets cold. There are more rules, but the book explains them much better than I do.

With these rules, it effectively boils down to this question: would you go back in time to talk to someone in the cafe for those precious minutes? Forgot to mention, you can only do this once. If so, who would that be? What if that person dies - would you go back, knowing there's nothing you can do to prevent their death? Or are you willing to gamble and jump to the future - a future where you're dead, to see your child at an older age, despite not knowing if they'll actually be there at that time?

There are 5 books, each concerning people of all ages, all relationships, and all circumstances. Sometimes reading a story made me tear up - a rare circumstance. Sometimes it had little effect on me, as I was not familiar with the character's feelings and doubts. Sometimes I saw myself in the characters, with this chronic illness, and having to see the burden that weighs around the people around me. And sometimes even the dying characters, who know their fate, give the living their hope, and pass on with a smile on their face and allow their loved ones to heal and start anew.

Most likely, there are people who will scoff at these short story type of books, and others who love them. I do recommend reading them in order; the characters are introduced in every book, but there are some scenes of character development and you can learn more about the cafe regulars along the way, as well as the secrets of the cafe.

Overall, it is a joy to read these books, and I'll definitely be rereading them at some point in 2025. So to the friend that bought me the first book, thank you for introducing me to the cafe.

Happy Reading,

Kevin