Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s Before the Coffee Gets Cold is a collection of interconnected short stories set in a small Tokyo café where customers can travel back in time—with strict limitations. The premise is simple: sit in a specific chair, drink a cup of coffee, and you can visit any moment in the past. But you must return before the coffee gets cold, and nothing you do will change the present.
It’s soft science fiction that prioritizes character and emotion over mechanics and explanation. The book doesn’t care why the café has this power or how it works. It cares about the people who use it and what they’re searching for in the past. The result is a series of tender, heartbreaking stories that will make you cry if you have a soul.
