A hot cup of coffee opens up a world

Tales from the Cafe by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Image from Amazon ... I thank you Amazon... 

Revisiting the fantastical cafe in a Japanese metropolis was like revisiting a long lost friend. I was very deeply touched by the first book Before the Coffee Gets Cold when I read it last year.  I apparently didn't ever actually post up about it here, but I did on Goodreads only, which seems really odd.  

That being said, and this may be the point of this story... is... I am righting wrongs.

So consider this, you have an opportunity to sit down with your own cup of hot coffee and you get to enter a lovely space and learn a little bit more about the people that are surrounding you and behind the counter of the beloved cafe.

The first book introduced us to the customers of the cafe but this book is more about the people of the cafe. What their tales are, how they traverse this amazing space and what they do and how they got there.  This book was something I didn't know I was missing to be honest. I didn't know that I needed these stories and mysteries as well.  

I want to give absolutely nothing away, but it was great.  We get a visit from a previous guest of the cafe and his travel back in time is so charming. I nearly forgot about his story from the first book, to be honest.  Our detective from the first story brings us into his world and lets us revisit the other patrons from the first book again. 

We learn and come full circle with the woman who has to vacate her chair for others to visit the past (or future).  What a tale that is.  

The warmth of the story is reflected in the sepia tone you get from the description of the location and it's like watching an old film, or looking at an old photograph. But with new eyes.  

The book is going to be released on October 12, 2021 and has already, and rightfully so, been chosen as a November 2021 Indie Next Pick.  

This story is so deeply touching and lovely to read.  I was so unbelievably struck by the last 10 pages, I honestly was sad when the story ended.  

Thank you to Harper Collins and NetGalley for the advanced copy.  I am all the better for reading this book.  I look at this book and story as a way to revisit MY past in the present by making sure that I tell everyone their value now in my life.  It is a quick read from a slim but packed with resonant emotions. Don't hesitate to pick it up.  

I am going to go back and read both volumes again, because I still think there are lessons I can learn from our cafe'.   While visiting the past (or future) you can make your amends but the present doesn't change in our cafe' but it makes the current time that much more valuable and these stories provide us with that lesson.  These stories are beautiful proof of that.