Toshikazu Kawaguchi

The second novel in Toshikazu Kawaguchi's internationally bestselling 'Before the Coffee Gets Cold' series

Hidden down a side street in Tokyo, Cafe Funiculi Funicula boasts many things: good coffee, good conversation, a friendly cast of regulars But the cafe also offers its customers a unique experience the chance to travel in time.

There are rules you must stick to you have to sit in the right seat, accept the coffee poured for you, and finally- most importantly- you must return to the present before the coffee gets cold.

Following on from Toshikazu

Kawaguchi's sensational debut. Before the coffee gets cold, in Tales from the cafe we meet: the man seeking the best friend whose daughter he raised as his own: the son who did not come home for his mother's funeral, the lover who travelled to see the girl he couldn't marry; and the ageing detective who couldn't save his own wife...

Beautifully told and brimming with warmth. Tales from the cafe explores how we carry our past with us, and how far we will go to see - perhaps for one last time the ones we love.

Tales from the cafe

在謊言拆穿之前

We can never truly see into the hearts of others. When people get lost in their own worries, they can be blind to the feelings of those most important to them. 

Eneko Uruñuela

🀢

Karrie Yu

Amalie Elisabeth

When spring begins, however, cannot be pinpointed to one particular moment. There is no one day that clearly marks when winter ends and spring begins. Spring hides inside winter. We notice it emerging with our eyes, our skin and other senses. We find it in new buds, a comfortable breeze and the warmth of the sun. It exists alongside winter.

Haya

남다영

Storm

It wasn't that he was dissatisfied with his ordinary life, it was just that from some- where in his heart he heard, I want to find work that is worth spending a lifetime on. 

We can never truly see into the hearts of others. 

‘I am going to be happy,’ she exclaimed.

Life too, passes through difficult winters. 

But after any winter, spring will follow.

Jessie

OK, I’ll live... no matter what happens.. I’ll live for my mother who never stopped wishing for my happiness, right until the very end.

Julia Rutgers

When the spout was just a few centimetres from the cup, a threadlike column of black coffee appeared. It was sound- less, and it didn't appear to be moving; only the surface of the liquid in the cup rose. The coffee that filled the vessel resembled a pitch-black shadow.

Tales from the cafe quotes

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