The bestselling international phenomenon, now wrapped up in a gorgeous, special festive gift edition - the perfect stocking filler for a loved one.

What would you do if you could go back in time?

In a small 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 in time.

In Before the coffee gets cold, we meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the café’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 early onset 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 . . .

Translated from Japanese by Geoffrey Trousselot, Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s beautiful, moving Before the coffee gets cold explores the age-old question: what would you change if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?

Continue the beautifully moving storytelling with Tales from the Cafe, Before Your Memory Fades, Before We Say Goodbye, Before We Forget Kindness and Before I knew I loved you.

About the Author

Toshikazu Kawaguchi was born in Osaka, Japan, in 1971. He formerly produced, directed and wrote for the theatrical group Sonic Snail. As a playwright, his works include COUPLE, Sunset Song and Family Time. The novel Before the Coffee Gets Cold is adapted from a 1110 Productions play by Kawaguchi, which won the 10th Suginami Drama Festival grand prize. It was followed by Tales From the Cafe, Before Your Memory Fades, Before We Say Goodbye, Before We Forget Kindness and Before I knew I loved you.

Geoffrey Trousselot was born in Hobart, Australia, in 1969. He is the translator of the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series. Other translations include The I Wonder Bookstore by Shinsuke Yoshitake and Hiroshima: From the shadows of the grass by Toshinori Kanaya. He was a contributing translator to The 20th Century Art in Japan by the Tokyo Art Club.