Before the Coffee Gets Cold Check Availability

Fiction

Kawaguchi engages the reader with four connected tales set in a tiny Tokyo café where lovers and family members take turns sitting in a chair that allows a person to travel back in time for only as long as it takes a single cup of coffee to cool. They embark on lo-fi, emotional journeys unburdened by the technicalities often found in time travel fiction—notably, they are unable to change the present. The characters learn, though, that even though people don’t return to a changed present, they return “with a changed heart.” Published in 2020; 272 pages.

Includes 15 paperback copies and 1 book club guide prepared by WCPL.