Before the Coffee Gets Cold (B&N Exclusive Edition) (Before the Coffee Gets Cold Series #1)

by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

As whimsical as it is charming, Before the Coffee Gets Cold is about a magical café that grants its customers the ability to travel through time. The beauty of Kawaguchi’s writing will immerse you so fully that you’ll find yourself looking for a seat at this quirky café.

This Barnes & Noble Exclusive Edition will have an original essay from the author, special effects on the cover and beautiful designed endpapers.

*NOW AN LA TIMES BESTSELLER*

*OVER ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD*

*AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER*

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

In a small back alley of Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. Local legend says that this shop offers something else besides coffee—the chance to travel back in time.

Over the course of one summer, four customers visit the café in the hopes of making that journey. But time travel isn’t so simple, and there are rules that must be followed. Most important, the trip can last only as long as it takes for the coffee to get cold.

Heartwarming, wistful, mysterious and delightfully quirky, Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s internationally bestselling novel explores the age-old question: What would you change if you could travel back in time?

Meet more wonderful characters in the next captivating novel in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series, Before We Say Goodbye, releasing November 14, 2023!

Read the rest of the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series:

• Tales from the Cafe
• Before Your Memory Fades

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781335910837
Publisher:	Hanover Square Press
Publication date:	11/21/2023
Series:	Before the Coffee Gets Cold Series , #1
Edition description:	B&N Exclusive Edition
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	4,735
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 7.50(h) x 2.00(d)

About the Author

Toshikazu Kawaguchi is a Japanese author whose novel, Coffee Gets Cold, became an international bestseller that's been adapted for the screen. Other books from Kawaguchi's popular series include Tales from the Cafe, Before Your Memory Fades and Before We Say Goodbye. Kawaguchi was previously a producer, director and writer for the theatrical group Sonic Snail. As a playwright, his works include COUPLE, Sunset Song and Family Time.

Editorial Reviews

"Before the Coffee Gets Cold... may explore similar ground to its predecessors in the genre, but it inventively limits the mechanics of its time travel to the confines of a small cafe, and is all the more resonant for it... the narrative is deeply moving." -Chicago Review of Books


"Heartwarming, quirky, and wistful." -Huffpost

"A charming novel about a mysterious Japanese coffee shop in which customers who sit in a certain chair can go back in time - but just while their coffee is cooling." -Star Tribune

"Kawaguchi... has a surprising, unerring ability to find lasting emotional resonance. Interwoven into what initially feels like a whimsical escape are existential conundrums of love and loss, family and freedom, life and death." -The Christian Science Monitor

"By cleverly weaving fantastic strands into what turns out to be an entertaining tale... Kawaguchi builds suspense from scene to scene, carefully selecting his narrative clues." -The Arts Fuse

"The story is gold. Before the Coffee Gets Cold is perfect for anyone who wants to feel connected right now." -BookReporter

"Before the Coffee Gets Cold is able to create pathos for the characters who yearn in earnest to change the past... Check out Kawaguchi’s work if you fancy a break from the inescapable reality of the pandemic." -The Mancunion


"Toshikazu lays out a system of time travel that is unconvoluted and beautifully simple... This charmingly magical novel is about discovering happiness despite the pasts that we desperately want to revisit." -The Harvard Crimson

"An affecting, deeply immersive journey into the desire to hold onto the past. This wondrous tale will move readers."—Publishers Weekly

"This is a sweet, fable-like tale about a magical seat in a cafe where you can, if you wish, go back in time… An odd read, but also a charming one."—The Sydney Morning Herald

“A story about human relationships, missed opportunities and the enduring power of love.”—The Gryphon

"A thought-provoking and at times tear-jerking realization about what we would say if we could go back in time.”—Palatinate

“It is full of soul, presented through clever world building and unfolding of its characters and relationships.”—Books and Bao

"A complete page-turner from the start to the end.”—Buzzfeed

From the Publisher

Arina Li’s nuanced performance highlights the longing and confusion of four hopeful time travelers in this quirky and touching story. Hidden away from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo’s main streets, urban legend claims, is a café that can transport people in time. Li’s lively voice and high tones conjure a mystical atmosphere within the nondescript café. The desperation and frustration of the time travelers can be both humorous and heartbreaking as they must follow myriad rules (including drinking the coffee before it gets cold) and face some difficult revelations. Li’s narration beautifully conveys the cultural aspects of the café visitors’ interactions and the book’s insightful message. M.F. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2020 - AudioFile

Arina Li’s nuanced performance highlights the longing and confusion of four hopeful time travelers in this quirky and touching story. Hidden away from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo’s main streets, urban legend claims, is a café that can transport people in time. Li’s lively voice and high tones conjure a mystical atmosphere within the nondescript café. The desperation and frustration of the time travelers can be both humorous and heartbreaking as they must follow myriad rules (including drinking the coffee before it gets cold) and face some difficult revelations. Li’s narration beautifully conveys the cultural aspects of the café visitors’ interactions and the book’s insightful message. M.F. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2020 - AudioFile