Content levels
Trigger warnings
Protagonist archetypes
Synopsis
*NOW AN LA TIMES BESTSELLER* *AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER* The first book in the five million-copy bestselling magical realism series If you could go back in time, who would you want to meet? In a small back alley of Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. Local legend says that this shop offers something else besides coffee—the chance to travel back in time. Over the course of one summer, four customers visit the café in the hopes of making that journey. But time travel isn’t so simple, and there are rules that must be followed. Most important, the trip can last only as long as it takes for the coffee to get cold. 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, and meet the daughter they never got the chance to know. Heartwarming, wistful, mysterious and delightfully quirky, Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s internationally bestselling novel explores the age-old question: What would you change if you could travel back in time? Meet more wonderful characters in the rest of the captivating Before the Coffee Gets Cold series: Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Book 1) Tales from the Cafe (Book 2) Before Your Memory Fades (Book 3) Before We Say Goodbye (Book 4) Before We Forget Kindness (Book 5) Before the Coffee Gets Cold - Boxed Set (Books 1-3)
Tags
Is Before the Coffee Gets Cold: A Heartfelt Novel Exploring Regret, Redemption and Closure From a Magical Café appropriate for my child?
Suitable for most readers 13 and up.
This gentle, philosophical novel about time travel and regret deals with mature emotional themes including Alzheimer's, death, and abandonment, but handles them with sensitivity and without graphic content.
What to know going in
This book has no graphic violence, no sexual content, and clean language. Content notes include death of spouse, grief, and alzheimer's (see the full list above).
Publisher ages reflect reading level; our rating reflects content maturity — they can differ.
Who'll love this
Readers will be moved by the interconnected stories of people trying to fix their past mistakes and find closure with loved ones.