Before the Coffee Gets Cold cover art

Before the Coffee Gets Cold

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold

By: Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Geoffrey Trousselot - translator
Narrated by: Arina Ii
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £10.99

Buy Now for £10.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

The million-copy bestselling series about a cosy Japanese cafe that offers its visitors the chance to travel back in time.

Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s uplifting Before the Coffee Gets Cold, translated from Japanese, explores the age-old question: what would you do if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?


In a cosy back alley in Tokyo, there is a cafe which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time.

Prepare to meet the next four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the cafe’s time-travelling offer in order to:
- confront the man who left them
- receive a letter from their husband whose memory has been taken by Alzheimer's
- see their sister one last time, and
- meet the daughter they never got the chance to know.

But the journey into the past does not come without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the cafe, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold . . .

‘This book broke my heart, took the pieces, and put them back together in a messy and beautiful way. . . '
-@well.read.woman on Instagram


Continue the beautifully moving storytelling with Tales from the Cafe, Before Your Memory Fades, Before We Say Goodbye and Before We Forget Kindness - all out now!

©2019 Toshikazu Kawaguchi (P)2019 Macmillan Publishers International Ltd
City Life Fiction Literary Fiction Magical Realism Science Fiction Time Travel Urban Fantasy Heartfelt Thought-Provoking Feel-Good Tear-jerking City
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job cover art
The Recruitment of Lucy James cover art
The Callahan Chronicals cover art
The Hidden Village cover art
Hyperion cover art
The Wife's Choice cover art
Elantris (3 of 3) [Dramatized Adaptation] cover art
New Spring cover art
Nightingale Point cover art
In a Single Moment cover art
Best Seller cover art
The Keeper of Happy Endings cover art
You and Me cover art
The Ravaged cover art
Reluctantly Home cover art
The Little Shop of Found Things: A Novel cover art

What listeners say about Before the Coffee Gets Cold

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    321
  • 4 Stars
    233
  • 3 Stars
    133
  • 2 Stars
    44
  • 1 Stars
    22
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    382
  • 4 Stars
    197
  • 3 Stars
    67
  • 2 Stars
    18
  • 1 Stars
    12
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    288
  • 4 Stars
    197
  • 3 Stars
    127
  • 2 Stars
    36
  • 1 Stars
    27

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

A simple, quietly considered novella

Narration was good, unassuming which suited the story.

Sweet little storyline, exploring people's motivations to travel through time.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Take a moment to relax

I loved being transported by the mellow voice of the narrator/interpreter of this book (Arina Ii) through the life stories of the characters. I'm not always comfortable with certain narrators but I really loved Arina!
This is not a book that will change your life but it's memorable through its unique setting. I actually hope friends of mine read it so that we can look at our coffees differently every day.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Beautiful story

This book was beautiful! I adored the story line and the way it read made the whole book feel nostalgic

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Too many unpronounceable names

Got overwhelmed with the names, couldn’t remember who is who. Had to re read too many times

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

intriguing story

Intriguing story with a happy ending.
The audio narrator did a great job.
i'd recommend this book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Ghost

We read this in a book group as we wanted something different. I also listened to this audible which I enjoyed more after the novel. I think it would make a better play, but our group generally enjoyed it and appreciated the premise. One group member had read the whole series which was useful.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Get past the first section

So I’d heard people rave about this book and when I started it the first I was confused. I found the first character to come into cafe really whiny and annoying and I think that’s why I paused listening to it for a while.

But, this month I didn’t really want to spend more on books so I thought I’d go back through my large library and have a look if there were any books that I haven’t finished. And I’m so glad I did!!

Once you get past the first section this book is beautiful and heartbreaking. Not many things make me cry but the last 5 minutes of this book had me reaching for the tissues

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

loved it

I loved the plot of the story and the way it was narrated. I was able to get an insight into so many different people's lives.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great premise

what a great story, I like how it all tied together even if it was quite predictable.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent narration of subtle and absorbing linked stories

It takes a few minutes to enter the world of this very special cafe but the skilled reader draws you into the quiet prose; the stories subtly weave notes of sadness, humour and even suspense. Like the café itself, what at first appears small turns out to be subtly far reaching.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!