Before the Coffee Gets Cold cover art

Before the Coffee Gets Cold

The cosy million-copy sensation from Japan

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Before the Coffee Gets Cold

By: Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Geoffrey Trousselot - translator
Narrated by: Arina Ii
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About this listen

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 and Before We Forget Kindness.

**Before I knew I loved you, the sixth book in the series, is available to pre-order now!**

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

Critic Reviews

Heartwarming, whimsical . . . offering comfort at a time when the world seems off-kilter and chaotic
All stars
Most relevant
A friend recommended this book. I found myself speeding through it as it was quite slow to get moving & I feel lacking substance. Didn’t ‘dislike’ it but was glad to get it finished which I feel isn’t the point of reading.

Very Japanese

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I enjoyed the book, performance and especially story. As I dive into more literature like this, I look forward to what is in store.

A delightful listen

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A well read story of hope and possibility. Interesting characters with depth and personality. Looking forward to a sequel.

An enjoyable story of hope and possibilities.

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I love the premise and it is beautifully written/translated. The performance is appropriate to the vibe of the stories and characters. I am looking forward to books two and three.

Exceptional

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Different, to what I would normally read, but this was a bookclub read.
A little slow at times, and took a while to get into, and found the characters a bit hard to work out who was who to start with. But each chapter was beautiful and finished with a lovely feeling. Worth the listen.

Different, deep & beautiful

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