Before the Coffee Gets Cold

What would you say if you could sit across from someone in your past one more time, knowing nothing you do there will change the present?

Toshikazu Kawaguchi's novel is set in Funiculi Funicula, a tiny café down a Tokyo back alley where one particular seat can carry a customer back in time. The rules are strict: you cannot leave the chair, you can only meet people who have visited the café, the present stays exactly as it is, and you must return before your coffee goes cold. Four visitors take the chance anyway, each with unfinished business involving a lover, a spouse, a sibling or a child. The story began as a stage play in 2010, appeared as a novel in Japan in 2015 and reached English readers in Geoffrey Trousselot's translation in 2019; it was also filmed in 2018.

Why readers keep returning to this café:
• Four linked, quietly emotional stories in one compact novel
• Time travel used to explore regret and acceptance, not science
• The first book in a series that continues with Tales from the Cafe
• Gentle, reflective prose suited to an evening read

For lovers of Japanese and translated fiction and anyone drawn to tender stories, this Picador edition is available at Boipoka.