4 stars for Before Your Memory Fades (Before the Coffee Gets Cold book 3) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi.
This post is an added bonus. I definitely did not expect it. And I surely did not foresee it. Even as I started out reading this book after Christmas Day, I expect to finish reading after New Year's Day. So, I am really happy to end the year with the exact same series that kicked off my reading this year - Before the Coffee Gets Cold. It's a great wrap-up!
Even though I read book 1 Before the Coffee Gets Cold and book 2 Tales from the Cafe in the beginning of this year - twelve months ago - it is not difficult to get into the story again as the author helps to refresh on the story and characters by his storytelling.
Before your Memory Fades is very much similar to the earlier two books, in that it is also about a time-travelling cafe and a heartwarming story on four customers. The only difference is the setting. Instead of Cafe Funiculi Funicular in Tokyo, it is now Cafe Donna Donna in Hakodate, Hokkaido. Initially, I am confused when I read about this second cafe, but soon, I realise the author has it all brilliantly worked out to connect it back to book 1.
This Coffee Gets Cold series is about a strange urban legend attached to a particular seat in the cafe - it allows the person sitting in this seat to time travel, to the past or to the future. There are some strange rules to follow regarding who can pour the time-travelling coffee for the customer who decides to sit in this time-travelling chair.
One important rule while being back to the past is that, you cannot change the present, no matter how hard you try. So, one may ask "What use is the time-travelling if you cannot change the present?" But the thing is, some things change, even if the present reality does not. This book is a good reminder to us on how important the ordinary life that we take for granted is, and how much happiness can be experienced from having someone you care about by your side. Sometimes, things that are put off saying until tomorrow are never said.
Reading this book makes me miss Hokkaido. Not only that, it makes me regret giving Hakodate a miss when I visited Hokkaido back in 2018. If I had visited Hakodate then, being a tourist, I would most likely have paid a visit to this very steep street where Cafe Donna Donna was located and so would have an inkling of how the scenes in this book play out.
If you could go back in time, who would you want to meet?
Publisher: Generic
Publication date: 1 Jan 2022
*** Favourite Quote ***
If it was just a matter of travelling back to the past, anyone could do it. But this cafe chooses people . . . By its rules . . . And some people hear those rules and give up. But those people who are resolved to go back, despite the rules, have a reason for doing so. It doesn’t matter what that reason is. If there is someone they must see, or someone they should see . . . even if the present reality won’t change . . . then, that’s all that matters.
~ Before Your Memory Fades
Toshikazu Kawaguchi
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The third novel in the international bestselling Before the Coffee Gets Cold series, following four new customers in a cafe where customers can travel back in time.
On the hillside of Mount Hakodate in northern Japan, Cafe Donna Donna is fabled for its dazzling views of Hakodate port. But that’s not all. Like the charming Tokyo cafe Funiculi Funicula, Cafe Donna Donna offers its customers the extraordinary experience of travelling through time.
From the author of Before the Coffee Gets Cold and Tales from the Cafe comes another story of four new customers, each of whom is hoping to take advantage of the cafe's time-travelling offer. Among some familiar faces from Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s previous novels, readers will also be introduced to:
A daughter who begrudges her deceased parents for leaving her orphaned
A comedian who aches for his beloved and their shared dreams
A younger sister whose grief has become all-consuming
A young man who realizes his love for his childhood friend too late
Translated from Japanese by Geoffrey Trousselot and featuring signature heart-warming characters and wistful storytelling, in Before Your Memory Fades, Kawaguchi once again invites the reader to ask themselves: what would you change if you could travel back in time?
*Blurb from FantasticFiction*
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