Read It Quick — Before The Coffee Gets Cold

A review of a delightful time travel tale set in a small cafe in Tokyo

Photo by Andreas Palmer on Unsplash

Review of “Before the Coffee Gets Cold” by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (Translated by Geoffrey Trousselot)

Think of an answer to the question that forms the central premise of this book

If you could go back, who would you want to meet ?

Doesn’t it sound like a question that is likely to be asked as the deciding factor at a beauty pageant, or on a first date, or in a psychological questionnaire?

I am not a fan of such broad and open-ended questions which seldom have one right answer. This one is particularly subjective, requiring introspection and personal awareness. Why ask?

I began reading the ebook version on a Friday evening, bracing myself for a slow read, prepared to abandon it midway considering my lack of interest in sci-fi, particularly time travel, the major component of the story.

Little did I know that I would keep returning to the book after every little interruption, impatient to find out what happened next, completing it at the expense of all other errands that remained undone.

The book is divided into four sections:

• The Lovers