Tales from the Cafe by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (Hanover Square Press)

A tiny cafe set in central Tokyo, Funiculi Funicula is easy to overlook, but for some it’s a destination worth traveling to. In this place, if all of the conditions are met, customers can travel back in time to see anyone they wish--provided that person had once visited this cafe. The time travel can only begin when the would-be traveler has sat in a particular chair, one that is always occupied by the same woman who leaves it only once a day, when she goes to the toilet at a time that always changes. Travel begins once a cup of coffee has been poured and must end before the coffee gets cold, and during the visit to the past, there is nothing the traveler can do that will change life in the present. If the visit doesn’t end before the coffee gets cold, the visitor can only return to the present as a ghost, sitting in the cafe forever.

One man orders his coffee because he’s been lying to his daughter for 22 years. A young man who hadn’t gone to his mother’s funeral drinks his coffee while planning to let it turn cold because he intends to stay in the past.  A homicide detective wants to give his dead wife the birthday gift he had never been able to present to her. One unusual customer travels in reverse. He comes from the past to visit the future, longing to know that the woman he loved and was unable to marry is living a happy life. Each of these stories is heartwarming but even more so is the underlying plot--the lives of the people who run the cafe. The owner, the young waitress who is his cousin, his little daughter who longs to be the server of the coffee, and the mysterious woman who chose never to return from the past become the primary focus of this charming narrative and each one of them finds a satisfying, happy ending.

A combination of fable and fairy tale with a dash of science fiction, this is a novel that comes just at the right time. It sparkles with hope and love, with a piercing question posed on the page that would usually hold a dedication: If you could go back, who would you want to meet? In this era of loss, when many people died alone without the people they loved beside them, this is a haunting thought to consider, one that has been posed in many different mediums.

Tales from the Cafe is a sequel.  Playwright Toshikazu Kawaguchi adapted one of his own plays to become a novel, Before the Coffee Gets Cold, in 2015. It then became a film, Funiculi Funicula, in 2018 and in 2021 was underway to become a television series. Kawaguchi’s underlying message--that we honor the past by seeking happiness in the present--continues to resonate and comfort, both in its original Japanese versions and in its English translations. “Spring,” he says, “hides inside winter,” a thought we need to keep in mind, especially during a winter that seems as though it will never end. ~Janet Brown