Book Review: Before the coffee gets cold

Book Review: Before the coffee gets cold 

          If you could go back , who would you want to meet? 

     

Before the coffee gets cold novel written by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. It comes with interesting concept of time traveling. A cafe in Tokyo name Funiculi Funicula that allows it's customers to travel back in time and return before the coffee gets cold. There are rules you must follow. 

  # The first rule : the only person you can meet while travel back in past are those who have visited the cafe. If the person you want to meet has never visited the cafe you can return to the past but you can't meet them. So if the visitors came from the far and wide across the japan it would turn out wasted journey for them. 

# The second rule : there is nothing you can do while in past that can change the present. 

# The third rule: There is only one seat that allows you to go back in time. So There is one lady who traveled back to time but could not return before coffee gets cold and turn into " Ghost". So This lady sitting on that time traveling seat. The only time you can sit there is when ghost goes to the toilet. She always goes once a day but no one can predict when that will be. 

# The fourth rule : while in past you can't move that seat. If you do you will be pulled back to present by force. 

# The fifth rule : your stay in the past begins when the coffee is poured and must end before the coffee gets cold. 

The novel has four stories : 

1) The lovers 

2) Husband and wife 

3) The sisters 

4) Mother and child 

The novel divided into four different stories. The first customer is Fumiko Kiyokava a businesswoman who wants to meet her boyfriend and redo a conversation before he leave for abroad. The second customer is Kohtake a nurse wants to meet her husband before his Alzheimers’ deteriorated and no longer remember her. She tires to find a letter her Alzheimer husband wrote for her. The third customer is Hirai a bar owner. She wants to meet her dead sister and talk to her. The fourth customer is cafe co owner named kei who wants to go future to check the condition of her unborn child. 

The present didn't change for everyone. Fumiko return from the past with the hope that she is able to repair her relationship with Gora. The present didn’t change for Kohtake but she banned everyone from using her maiden name and changed her attitude towards Fusagi. She would be with Fusagi to continue being his wife even though she had vanished from his memory. Hirai abandoned her successful bar to rejoin her family while repairing her relationship with her parents she learn traditional ways of inn.Hirai had still lost her sister but the photo she sent to the cafe showed her looking happy with her parents. Kei's heart sang with happiness when she saw Miki. She was the mother of the girl standing before her. She realised that Fumiko had been by Miki for these fifteen years. Nagare as father and kazu had been played a role of mother and sister. She realised that all these people had been around Miki supporting her growth for these fifteen years after she had been  gone .

 

  The novel with beautiful message no matter what difficulties people face they will always strength to overcome them. It just take a heart. The chair can not change fthe present but it can change someone heart. At the end it matter the most.