OVER ONE MILLION COPIES SOLDNOW AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERIf you could go back, 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 … 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?
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What seems like 4 simple stories about time travel turn out to be so much more. The interconnected stories are about second chances, and they all take place in a coffee shop. Here’s the rub. The time travelers cannot do anything to change the present. So what’s the point in going back? Imagine being able to see a loved one’s face again or changing the last words you spoke to someone. All of that is possible, but it must be done before your cup of coffee gets cold.
I struggled getting through the first chapter and could not continue. I guess the translation did not make it a smooth read for me. I’m sorry.
Have you ever wished you could go back and fix a regret, change something you said or did not say to someone? In this tale set in a tiny, cozy café in Japan, people have that chance, but they only have a few minutes to get their point across: until their coffee gets cold.
There are several difficult conditions though; and a ghost who does not like to move from the one seat you must be sitting in to travel time. One of the conditions says that no matter what you do while traveling time, the present will not change. So, is it worth it to go back if you can’t change the present? And if so, why?
This tale is about different types of relationships, lovers, husband and wife, mother and daughter, and sisters. Each relationship has its own challenges and regrets. For example, a wife has to deal with her husband forgetting they are married, due to illness. What could she possibly say to him in the past, when he still remembers her, that could have meaning in the present?
The book is filled with many little descriptive details, which have the effect of creating memorable characters. The story has a paranormal feel and will evoke many tender emotions. Readers will be surprised at the outcome of each of these stories. I recommend this book.
This book is built with great attention to details. The author does a beautiful job of laying open human relationships. I was particularly taken by the elderly man with dementia and his wife who is a nurse. The time travel twist is quite original.
In movies, it’s fun seeing complicated machinery that makes time travel possible. This author uses a simple device—a chair. In a series of sad, funny, and touching tales, we are introduced to a collection of regulars who have been drinking coffee at this particular café for years. Each wants to fix a problem by going to the past.
But here’s the twist. You can’t fix anything. You can only observe, and—while never leaving the chair—you can interact with whomever it was you went to see. Employing prose that is simple and powerful, the author shows us that what matters is understanding the people around us. And the gift we come away with is a feeling of joy for having understood.
This hooked me from the beginning. I couldn’t put it down but also didn’t want it to end. Time travel with an interesting twist. I highly recommend!
Starts with a great concept, but the plot is constrained to the interactions between a small group of characters. I appreciate the elegance of the prose, but was expecting more based on Amazon’s description. Too much sizzle for a tiny portion of very fine meat.
This book was absolutely beautiful. I lost sleep, ignored my family, and enjoyed every minute of the character’s stories and reasons for wanting to visit the past – or the future. The writing may seem a bit off, but (thanks for the reminder, Mercedes!) this was originally written as a play. It’s a gorgeous reminder of what is important in life. I wish the second book was available in the US!
This was a charming read, one that answers the “what ifs” that precede second chances. For visitors of this magical cafe, their present will not be changed, but they, themselves, will change. I look forward to the next one!
I chose this book because I liked the title and the cover, and because I’m a coffee lover 🙂 I really didn’t know what to expect because there are a lot of mix reviews everywhere. However, it is a very nice story about human relations, love and missed opportunities. I liked how each of the stories unfolds. The only thing I didn’t like much was the story about the 2 sisters (chapter 3) is a bit confusing because it is very long and many things happen, and there’s a lot of names that are confusing.
Overall it’s a good story, easy to read and I can see the screen adaptation.
I thought this was a very lovely book. I wouldn’t say it’s about time travel, although some of the characters do travel through time. It’s more about getting a second chance at a particular moment in your life. The emphasis is on that.
The four “chapters” were more like four novellas. Some of the characters overlapped and the opportunity is there to see where each ended up and the degree of happiness they achieved after their time of sitting in the chair at the cafe that takes people back to certain moments in their life. I thought each separate chapter was very touching and just so beautiful. I had no expectation of what I would find in a book by a Japanese author, but I truly think this will stay with me.
I listened to the audio version of this book.
Could not get into it. Unusual for me.
The book is one of the best I’ve ever read. I grew out of a play, so the story was honed to as near perfection as it can be. I am not going say that everyone will like it, but I not only enjoyed it, I found it fulfilling to read.
This was one of those cheap little books that turns into a wonderful find! I chose it because just for fun we celebrate some quirky holidays throughout the year. December 8 was Pretend To Be A Time Traveler Day, and we had a lively discussion about what we would do if we could time travel.
First, we both thought it would be amazing to travel to Biblical times, watch the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock, meet the forefathers of our land. Second, we would travel to ancient Egypt to see the pyramids rising from the desert, experiencing a vanished culture. Of course, we have taken liberty with our time travel rules as we would be able to see what we wanted to see, such as a glimpse of a pyramid’s treasure-filled chamber, which would have been off-limits to most people. But with an I Dream of Jeannie nod to get us out of the way of trouble, we would be able to travel to the lands of dinosaurs.
Then we decided why not just make our time travel vacation a world tour of all 7 Wonders of the Ancient World:
The Great Pyramid at Giza, Egypt The Hanging Gardens of Babylon The Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Greece Temple of Artemis at Ephesus The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus The Colossus of Rhodes The Lighthouse at Alexandria, Egypt
Many years ago, we visited South Dakota. One of the most memorable things from that trip is being out in the Black Hills, pretty much in the middle of nowhere. We pulled off the road, and there was a path that went up, which we climbed. At the top was a bluff overlooking the land below, which had a large herd of buffalo grazing. We sat on the bluff, the wind in our ears, watching a herd of buffalo and talked about how it would have been to see this 150 or 200 years before, when there were so many buffalo you could hardly see the grass.
How fun would it be to watch Babe Ruth call his shot during the world series, then make a home run! We would be eating hot dogs, of course. Which started us thinking, would a hot dog taste the same in 1932 as a hot dog today? Guess we’ll never know!
So, back to the future. In a small back alley in Tokyo, the Funiculi Funicula coffee shop offers its customers the chance to travel back in time. Yet, it’s not quite the same as my vision of time travel as there are very strict rules:
You can’t meet people who haven’t visited the cafe.
The present will not change.
There is only one seat that takes you to the past, and you cannot move from it.
You are poured a cup of coffee, and you must be back before the coffee gets cold.
You only get one chance.
There really isn’t any plot to the story as the time travel is secondary. Primarily, the book is a character and emotion-driven examination of why someone would go back in time for such a short period of time, knowing they cannot change the present. It’s a sentimental tale of relationships and emotions, written quite simply but poignantly. There is some repetition and details that don’t add much to the story, and perhaps it would have been better as a long novella. While I didn’t care much for the first story, I’m glad I continued as it was an engaging read
If you look up Funiculi Funicula on YouTube, there are versions by Andrea Bocelli, Luciano Pavarotti, Mario Lanza and others. My favorite is Rodney Dangerfield’s version!
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Took a bit to figure out the characters and how they interact.
Nice change of pace! Good read!
A delightful book beginning to end.
This was a delightful read. Loved how all the characters were woven together through the stories.
The reviews for this book are all over the place, so I wasn’t sure if I’d like it or not. I ended up really enjoying it! Each story was sweet, and I loved the legend of THAT chair, but the last story was by far the sweetest and most heartbreaking.
The only thing I didn’t love was we never learn who the ghost woman is! The woman who, at some point in time, broke the most important rule…drink the coffee before it gets cold! Who is she? How long has she been at the cafe? Who did she go back and see?
THAT’S a story I would love to read!
Overall though, I really enjoyed this story, and I absolutely recommend it.
There is a hidden-away coffee shop in Tokyo which is magical – it can take you back in time, but only if you stick to the rules. This is a book unlike anything I’ve ever read before and, once I’d got my head around the concept, I was absorbed by Kawaguchi’s skilful depiction of the relationships between the characters. I found the last three chapters very moving, but this was offset with gentle humour found in the guise of a ghost who visits the loo. The final chapter made me blub.