Book Review: Tales From The Cafe by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

February 13, 2024

Generally speaking, I feel like I am cautious about sequels, or continuations of a story that I really really loved. I am nervous that I will not like it as much, or it will somehow ruin the love that I had for the first, but this book did not disappoint.

Like the first in the series, Before The Coffee Gets Cold, it takes place all in one little cafe in Japan, and we have the same two characters that run the cafe together, a set of cousins, Kazu and Nagare. We learn more about Kazu’s story in this book as we follow four more people who want to visit loved ones in another time.

If you don’t know the main concept, there is a little coffee shop that allows you to travel in time for a very short while, only while the coffee you are drinking is still warm, and only to see people who have been in that cafe at some point. There are rules the time travelers need to follow, but I will let you read the book if you want to learn more about that.

This book is beautiful and heartfelt and left me excited to read the next book in the series. After every chapter, like the first book, I am left crying and contemplating the relationships that I have and thinking about how important the people in our lives are, even if we don’t realize it, even if we are taking their presence for granted.

I highly reccomend reading this book for everyone. It deals with loss and disappointment and grieving in such a beautiful and real way. I read on a book review the other day, a critique called the book that I was reading “deeply necessary” and I feel like that has fit this book and its predecessor.

I need to go call my grandma and write my sister. Read this book.