This novel of interconnected, emotional stories may not be “classic” time travel fiction — and its underlying values can feel a bit dated — but it’s a worthwhile read nonetheless.
The Summary
The quirkiest café in Japan, Funiculi Funicula, has a truly unique selling point: it allows its guests to travel back or forward in time from one particular chair. However, it’s not as popular as you’d expect due to the many annoying caveats — you can’t leave your seat, you only have until your coffee gets cold, and worst of all, nothing you do in the past will alter the present. For most people, it’s not worth the effort (and heartache).
Before the Coffee Gets Cold tells the stories of four women who do decide to travel through time: to confront an ex-boyfriend; coax a letter out of a husband with early onset Alzheimer’s disease; make up with a sister before she dies; and meet a daughter they will never get the chance to know. Through these heart-wrenching encounters, readers come to realize that there is a point to such constrained time travel, after all.
My Review
Before the Coffee Gets Cold is not your typical time-travel novel. It’s not concerned with how small actions in the past might drastically change the present. In fact, altering the present simply isn’t possible, and there’s no attempt to explain why. That’s because the story’s not really about the science fiction-y mechanics of time travel; instead, it’s a character-driven story about loss, acceptance, and learning to live in the present.
The four main characters all have strong emotional arcs, as their journeys to the past change something about their attitudes in the present. Kawaguchi, who initially wrote this novel as a stage play, dives compellingly into the characters’ immediate motivations; however, I do think greater insight into their underlying beliefs would have enhanced the narrative further.
For example, the character of Kei has a heart condition, which means she will almost certainly die giving birth to the child she is carrying. While it makes sense that she wants to travel to the future to talk to her daughter just once, Kawaguchi doesn’t fully explore why Kei wants to go through with the pregnancy in the first place (it’s not due to pressure from her husband or doctor, and the novel takes place in contemporary times).
The backstory that does appear takes up more of the novel than the actual time travel scenes, leading to a somewhat slow pace. But again, this is simply the nature of the novel; it’s not a sci-fi or action-adventure story, as you might assume when hearing “time travel”, but instead is a piece of deeply contemplative literary fiction. For me, the appearance of future or past characters kept the stories interesting despite the slower pace, and created a nice sense of cohesion between the episodes.
That said, the overall flow of the novel does feel slightly stilted at times. This is presumably a deliberate choice by the translator, Geoffrey Trousselot. By using language that doesn’t sound 100% natural in English (though it’s still perfectly comprehensible), he effectively “transports” the reader to Japan — grounding these stories in a specific context, rather than allowing the reader to imagine them happening anywhere, which is actually to the novel’s benefit. Trousselot’s linguistic style also offers deeper insights into Japanese culture; for example, the formal way the characters speak to each other reflects the social etiquette in Japan.
Unfortunately, traditional Japanese values around gender roles also feature in the novel — most prominently in the Kei storyline, as mentioned, but also more subtly throughout. Although I don’t think Kawaguchi consciously intends to send this message, it’s possible to interpret BTCGC as claiming that women’s happiness comes from marriage and childbearing.
It’s the sort of old-fashioned sentiment that we forgive in classic literary fiction like Pride and Prejudice or Jane Eyre, and it didn’t personally ruin my reading experience… but I would hope to see some women choose different paths in the remainder of the series (which has four more sequels to Kawaguchi’s debut).
Overall, I would still recommend Before the Coffee Gets Cold to fans of translated literature, literary fiction, and cozy yet thought-provoking stories. The premise is unique; the themes of regret, letting go, and moving on are well-explored; and some of the stories are especially moving. Plus, it’s always valuable to read about different cultures, even if the values don’t fully align with one’s own. If you can get past the somewhat stilted phrasing at times, it’s the perfect book to curl up with on a rainy day.
Joli also gave this one 4 stars back in March of 2023.
Bookshop.org | Amazon | Goodreads | StoryGraph
- Review: Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi - May 14, 2025