Book Review: Tales From The Cafe
Tales From The Cafe by Toshikazu Kawaguchi is translated from Japanese to English by Geoffrey Trousselot. It is a novel that explores magical realism and time travel. It is the second book in the series of “Before The Coffee Gets Cold
Book Blurb On Amazon
In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time . . .From the author of Before the Coffee Gets Cold comes Tales from the Cafe, a story of four new customers each of whom is hoping to take advantage of Cafe Funiculi Funicula's time-travelling offer. Among some faces that will be familiar to readers of Toshikazu Kawaguchi's previous novel, we will be introduced to:The man who goes back to see his best friend who died 22 years ago. The son who was unable to attend his own mother’s funeral. The man who traveled to see the girl who he could not marry. The old detective who never gave his wife that gift . . .This beautiful, simple tale tells the story of people who must face up to their past, in order to move on with their lives. Kawaguchi once again invites the reader to ask themselves: what would you change if you could travel back in time?
Review
This book is a heartwarming and emotionally resonant novel that explores the themes of love, loss, sympathy, regret, and second chances following the first book in the series “Before The Coffee Gets Cold.”
The plot of the story is well-maintained, similar to the first book with a difference of the setting and unfolding the past of the main characters of the story i.e. cafe owner and his family. In this book also, there are four chapters with the distinct stories of other characters who choose to travel back in time. Readers will find comfort while reading to connect with the tales explored in this book, chapter by chapter and the notorious behavior of Miki will take them on a nostalgic ride.
Readers will find it easy to remember characters due to the way the author brings in the character development. At the beginning of the book, there is a chart representation of the characters and how they connect. Even if, while reading, readers lose track of character, they have a choice to go back and explore the diagram. Each personality in the stories unfolds with detailed descriptions reflecting from the past to the present and may be future.
As the stories explore the themes of love, loss, sympathy and second chances, this book too holds personal struggles and regrets of the characters in each story. The first story is about best friends where one goes in the past to meet his dead friend, acknowledging him about his friend’s daughter’s marriage whom he has brought up after his death. The next is about a mother and son, where the son beholds the regret of not coming to her mother’s funeral.The third one is about lovers in which the male character only wishes for her girlfriend’s happiness. The final story is about a married couple where the husband travels back in time to visit his dead wife.
Each story in this book unfolds a bitter truth that leads to new realizations for them. Readers will love the writing style of the author. It is simple and interesting. While reading, the readers will feel the melancholy vibe of the cafe as the theme of the story. In this book, the end conclusion of everyy story was that the dead person wanted the happiness of the person who was alive and those who were alive chose to be happy for the happiness of their loved ones.
With this book, the sadness on the face of Kazu, the person who carried the ritual of sending people back in time seems disappearing with the message,
“Seasons flow in a cycle.
Life too, passes through difficult winters
But after any winter, spring will follow
Here one spring had arrived
Kazu’s spring had just begun.”
If you love to read time travel stories, try this book and share your experience with me. I would love to discuss this book. Though you can read this book even before the first one, to be precise choose it in a sequence to avoid missing information about few characters that came from the first one.
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