My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5/10 Author: Toshikazu KawaguchiGenres: Japanese contemporary fiction, magical realism, grief and lossOriginally Published: September 24, 2024Number of pages: 240Series: 6th book of the series This is the last translated book, at least for now, of Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s Before the Coffee Gets Cold series, and yes, I read all…
My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 4/10 Author: Toshikazu KawaguchiGenres: Japanese contemporary fiction, magical realism, grief and lossOriginally Published: March 13, 2023Number of pages: 224Series: 5th book of the series Five Books In, and Still Waiting This is the fifth book in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series, and it is another…
My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 6/10 Author: Toshikazu KawaguchiGenres: Japanese contemporary fiction, magical realism, grief and lossOriginally Published: September 20, 2021Number of pages: 188Series: 4rd book of the series If you have already read the first three books, I have to be honest with you: this one is getting a bit boring. If…
Before the Coffee Gets Cold didn’t start out as a novel. Toshikazu Kawaguchi originally wrote it as a stage play in 2010. It soon won the grand prize at a well known theatre festival in Japan, the Suginami Drama Festival. In 2015, Kawaguchi adapted his own play into a novel, and the book eventually made…
Before Your Memory Fades moves the action to Café Donna Donna, a sister café in Hakodate owned by Yukari Tokita – the mother of Nagare, who runs the original Funiculi Funicula café in Tokyo. Yukari has left, somewhat suddenly, for America – we later learn it’s for two reasons: she’s searching for the father of one of the café’s young customers, and separately, searching for a bone-marrow donor for someone dear to the story.
My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 7/10 Author: Toshikazu KawaguchiGenres: Magical Realism, Contemporary Fiction Originally Published: March 14, 2017Number of pages: 192Series: 2nd book of the series I’m the kind of reader who needs to finish what I start, and after reading Before the Coffee Gets Cold, I felt…
My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 7/10 Author: Toshikazu KawaguchiGenres: Magical Realism, Contemporary Fiction Originally Published: December 06, 2015 Number of pages: 213Series: 1st book of the series This was my first time reading a Japanese writer. It happened almost by accident. I was heading into a vacation and…