Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s Before the Coffee Gets Cold is a book that transcends time —both literally and figuratively. It is not your typical sci-fi, time-travel novel. Instead of adventures and antics, the book focuses on the raw, emotional weight of revisiting the past. Originally a stage play, the book maintains a theatrical feel. Kawaguchi fluidly carries the storyline through dialogue between characters. Set in a small Tokyo café, the story unfolds in a confined space, making the characters’ emotional struggles even more poignant.
The book is woven around four interconnected stories, each featuring a different individual longing to visit the past. Set in a mysterious café, the novel introduces some strict rules governing time travel: Patrons must sit in a specific seat, whatever they do won’t change the present, and most importantly, they must return before the coffee gets cold. This limitation makes the journey deeply personal, requiring people to focus on not altering the past but finding closure and understanding.
Kawaguchi explores themes of love, loss, longing, and regret by following the stories of 4 people, a girlfriend, Fumiko, a wife, Kohtake, a sister, Hirai, and a mother, Kei. Each story revolves around different circumstances, Fumiko felt that she didn’t receive the goodbye she needed, Kohtake needed to take a letter from her Alzheimer’s-struck husband, Hirai wanted to make amends with her sister who passed and Kei wished to meet her child who had not yet been born, fearing that her heart condition would prevent her from living long enough to raise them.
The story I liked the most was “The sisters”, the way Kawaguchi beautifully uses flashbacks to represent time travel was excellent. In addition, Kawaguchi also uses silence to convey messages. For me, this silence spoke louder than words, it spoke grief, it spoke happiness, and most of all, it spoke nostalgia.
If I had to summarise the book in one sentence, it would be “While the past cannot change, people’s perspectives can”. My biggest takeaway from the book would be to free yourself from the past, not focus on the future, and live in the present.
I highly recommend reading this book at least once
If you could travel back in time, where would you go? and why?
Written by: Kapish
Let me know in the comments!
I'm reading this book very soon… If I could travel to the, I will go back to my college days and get more productive. I understand the value of the precious carefree time now as I age.
Narthana
Thats an excellent perspective! Thanks a lot!