(the text was originally publishe in Polish 15th Jan 2024)
„Before the coffee gets cold” by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, is a book unlike any I have read in recent years. Yes, I know, it sounds like a part of a dialogue from a romantic comedy, where the heroine meets THE ONE and for half the movie she doesn’t see any of his flaws : ) Rest assured, I’m not wearing rose-coloured glasses, so you can count on a fair, albeit subjective (how else?) opinion.
I reached for this book having come across many recommendations online and in the press. The story about a café in Tokyo, where its guests can travel to the past – well, admit it, doesn’t that sound intriguing? Apart from Harry Potter or the film „Avatar”, I am not drawn to science-fiction stories, but I was drawn to this book. Maybe it’s also because I recently turned 40 and when I was thinking about my dream birthday present it crossed my mind more than once that I would like to turn back time, to be younger, but I couldn’t decide by how much. So I was probably counting a little on the book to help me answer this very unrealistic question.
At the very beginning I was surprised by … the language. It is rather frugal, not to say simple in its message. At such moments, I wonder whether it is a matter of the original or the translation, but in this case I am not in a position to judge. Despite not my writing style, however, I gave this book a chance. The language did not evolve over the pages, but the stories were inexplicably engaging, although they were also rather uncomplicated. But only at the first glance. The magic of this book was that it remains in my mind to this day – not entirely because of its content, as details easily slip away when we read a lot. But because of the reflections and the series of questions „What would I do in such a situation?”.
The author has written 2 more books, which are sequels to „Before the coffee gets cold”, but I didn’t decide to read them. I found that the stories in the first book were enough for me, they made me think about different things and situations. And an overabundance of words and stories from the subsequent books could spoil it all. After all, sometimes less is more : )