Book Synopsis:
In the fifth book in the sensational Before the Coffee Gets Cold series translated from Japanese, the mysterious Tokyo café where customers arrive hoping to travel back in time welcomes four new guests:
– The father who could not allow his daughter to get married
– A woman who couldn’t give Valentine’s Day chocolates to her loved one
– A boy who wants to show his smile to his divorced parents
– A wife holding a child with no name . . .
They must follow the café’s strict rules, however, and come back to the present before their coffee goes cold.
Another moving and heartwarming tale from Toshikazu Kawaguchi, in Before We Forget Kindness our new visitors wish to go back into their past to find closure and comfort so they can embark on a beautiful future.
My Review:
Before We Forget Kindness is another compelling book which manages to be very emotional at times but also quite heart warming in others.
It was great to be back visiting the café and hearing all the fascinating stories of their customers. I really like how the author manages to keep this series so fresh by thinking of stories or situations for his characters that are different to anything featured in the previous books. I felt that these books had a much more philosophical feel to them as most of them were about not taking for things for granted as you never knew what would happen tomorrow. They were definitely quite emotional to read about as I often found myself tearing up as I read.
The book is divided into four sections, each following a different person who is trying to go back in time (or to the future) to help right a wrong even though they know that their actions will have no effect on events that have transpired. I felt this book was slightly different to the previous ones as the focus seemed to be on events leading up to the characters wanting to visit the café rather than the time they spend in the past or the future. I found this really interesting as it was great to know a little more about their past and what brought them to the café. I did still prefer the bits when they actually time travelled but that might be because of a childhood fantasy to travel back in time.
Overall as you can probably tell I really enjoyed this book and will be recommending it to everyone. I thought the book had a great pace to it and I soon felt drawn into the characters lives. There were a parts that I felt could have been trimmed down a bit but I’m not sure if that was just because I was eager to get to my favourite bit of the series as mentioned above. The ending of the stories where always beautiful and I closed the book with a smile on my face. I really hope there will be more books in this fabulous series!
Huge thanks to Bookbeat and Pan Macmillan for providing me with a copy of this book.
About The Author:
Toshikazu Kawaguchi was born in Osaka, Japan, in 1971. He formerly produced, directed and wrote for the theatrical group Sonic Snail. As a playwright, his works include COUPLE, Sunset Song, and Family Time. The novel Before the coffee gets cold is adapted from a 1110 Productions play by Kawaguchi, which won the 10th Suginami Drama Festival grand prize.
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