Tales from the Cafe
Ratings81
Average rating3.9
15
Ratings81
Average rating3.9
In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café 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...From the author of Before the Coffee Gets Cold comes a story of four new customers each of whom is hoping to take advantage of Cafe Funiculi Funicula's time-travelling offer.Among some faces that will be familiar to readers of Kawaguchi's previous novel, we will be introduced to:The man who goes back to see his best friend who died 22 years agoThe son who was unable to attend his own mother's funeralThe man who went back to see the girl who he could not marryThe old detective who never gave his wife that gift...This beautiful, simple tale tells the story of people who must face up to their past, in order to move on with their lives. Kawaguchi once again invites the reader to ask themselves: what would you change if you could travel back in time?
Reviews with the most likes.
"We can never truly see into the hearts of others.
When people get lost in their worries, they can
be blind to the feelings of those more important
to them."
Beautiful, introspective, and just as wonderful as the first book, Before the Coffee Gets Cold.
I get that it was meant to be sweet and thoughtful, but it just didn't work for me. It felt stiff and heavyhanded; the characters flat and unrelatable, shoehorned to fit into the narrative. All of them are “troubled” in some way, and the author made sure to reiterate their one woe (“felt guilty because XYZ”) in case we missed it the first or second time. The time-travel rules are arbitrary to the point of being annoying, and often interfered with the flow.
This book is beautifully written with an equally beautiful message. Kawaguchi's characters feel so real and relatable. Their personal growth feels organic and true, not having forced a happily-ever-after upon them. The resolutions seem simple when reading them, but there is a lot that happens in one's soul to get there. Kawaguchi's characters display this brilliantly, showing a respect for the person and their personal thoughts while communicating the personal journey to the reader. I love this book as much as the first.
It has been a few months since I read the previous book in the series, so I was glad when the author made any needed recaps for events that have a follow up in this one. The theatrical feeling of the writing keeps being present and one of the best features of the series.
The main idea of the short stories in this book is death related regret. Regret of not having done or said something before or after someone is no longer in our life. It hit me particularly hard because recently I experienced some of this.
I left it having a bit more hope.
“It’s a part of life, and carrying out acts of mourning allows us not to forget.”
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Featured Series
5 primary booksBefore the Coffee Gets Cold is a 5-book series with 5 primary works first released in 2015 with contributions by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Miyako Slocombe, and 2 others.
