Review of "Before We Say Goodbye: A Before The Coffee Gets Cold Novel" by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

In this 4th book in the 'Before The Coffee Gets Cold' series, four 'time travelers' want to make amends. The book can be read as a standalone.

*****

On a side street in Tokyo there's a little coffee shop called Funiculi Funicula that has a very unusual feature. It allows people to travel back in time. There are rigid rules for time travelers, however, as follows:

- Whatever you do, you CANNOT change the present.

- You can only interact with people who have visited Funiculi Funicula.

- You must sit in one specific chair in the café to time travel, and you can't leave the chair for any reason. The catch is, a ghost - in the form of a woman reading a book - occupies the chair and only leaves once a day to go to the toilet.



- A cup of coffee starts the journey, and you MUST return to the present before the coffee gets cold. If you don't return in time, YOU become the ghost in the chair.



Regular denizens of the coffee shop include:

☕︎ Nagare Tokita - the owner of the café; he's over six feet tall and wears a white cook's uniform.



☕︎ Kazu - Nagare's cousin, who works as a waitress in the café; she pours the coffee for the time travelers.



☕︎ Nana Kohtake - a nurse in a local hospital; she drops into the café every day after work.



☕︎ Fumiko Kiokawa - a university graduate who knows six languages; she also visits the café every day after work.



*****

In each of the four vignettes in this book, someone is haunted by something that happened in the past, and feels compelled to go back. The four time travelers are:

⏲️ The Husband



Monji Kadokura is a husband, father, professor, and adventurer who traveled extensively for his work. Over the years, Kadokura spent little time with his family, and left the task of raising the children to his spouse.

A few years ago, Kadokura's wife Mieko had an accident, and she's been in a vegetative state ever since. Now, the professor wants to go back and speak to his wife one more time.

⏲️ The Dog Owner



Sunao Hikita and her husband Mutsuo never had children, but they had a beloved golden retriever named Apollo. When Apollo was approaching the end of his life, Sunao and Mutsuo took turns staying with the dog around the clock, so Apollo wouldn't pass alone.

Sadly, Sunao was dozing when Apollo went to his reward, and she feels terrible about her lapse. Thus Sunao wants to return to the past.

⏲️ The Girlfriend



When Hikari Ishimori's boyfriend, Yoji Sakita, asked her to meet him in Funiculi Funicula, Hikari knew Yoji planned to propose. Hikari, who just got a job as a wedding planner, explained she wasn't ready to wed, and Yoji promised to wait for her.

Now, half a year later, Hikari says he's become interested in another woman. This spurs Hikari to visit the past.

⏲️ The Daughter



Michiko Kijimoto decided to attend university in Tokyo to get away from her father, Kengo, who was always telling her what to do. When Kengo visited his daughter at school, she was rude and disprespectul.

Shortly afterwards, Japan experienced the 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami, in which Kengo perished. Thus Michiko wants to go back and speak to her father once again.

*****

The stories are quirky, touching, and illuminating.

If you could go back in time, who would you choose to see?

Thanks to Netgalley, Toshikazu Kawaguchi, and Hanover Square Press for a copy of the book.

Rating: 3.5 stars