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Before the Coffee Gets Cold

Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Book 1

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Before the Coffee Gets Cold

Written by: Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Geoffrey Trousselot - translator
Narrated by: Arina Ii
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The cosy, heartwarming first book in the multi-million copy bestselling series.

What would you do if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time? Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s Before the Coffee Gets Cold, translated from Japanese, explores this age-old question . . .


In a cosy back alley in Tokyo, there is a cafe which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time.

Prepare to meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the cafe’s time-travelling offer in order to:
- confront the man who left them
- receive a letter from their husband whose memory has been taken by Alzheimer's
- see their sister one last time
- meet the daughter they never got the chance to know.

But the journey into the past does not come without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat. They cannot leave the cafe. And finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold . . .

‘This book broke my heart, took the pieces, and put them back together in a messy and beautiful way. . . ' - well.read.woman on Instagram

Continue the beautifully moving storytelling with Tales from the Cafe, Before Your Memory Fades, Before We Say Goodbye, Before We Forget Kindness and Before I knew I loved you.

City Life Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Magical Realism Science Fiction Time Travel Urban World Literature
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Critic Reviews

Heartwarming, whimsical . . . offering comfort at a time when the world seems off-kilter and chaotic
All stars
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What a weird genre! Heart felt stories when people travel in past through a lesser known underground cafe in Japan. it's not sci fi, it's not love stories. it's just weird stories which are absolutely smashing.

loved reading this book. Four stars though because I thought editing could have been crisper and the book could be half of actually what it is.

Heart melting stories of time travel!

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first time listening to a fiction book on audible. The story is captivating I could see it happening through my ears if you get what I mean. Enjoyed every second of it. 100% recommend

Beautiful story loved every second of it

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It says it cannot fix the future but ironically, it has healed and fixed the future of all the characters involved. Fixing the future is mainly about change of perspective and an understanding. Good book

You cannot change the future?

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I love all four stories but I also want to about that lady who sit in that chair all day reading book. i wish to know her story as well.
but this story is just the best no flaw that I could point out

it's the best

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It is a beautiful story will written and narrated. I connected it immediately with the story as I have been to Japan several times and I have always loved Japanese people - how polite, respectful and considerate they are. The story beautifully asserts it's readers to make amends in the present because practically none of us can go back in time.

Description of Japan and its cultured and polite people

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