Before the Coffee Gets Cold

If You Could Go Back, What Would You Change?

In a small basement café in Tokyo, there is a very particular seat. Sit in it at the right moment, and you can travel back in time — to any moment in your past. There are rules, of course. You cannot leave the café. You cannot change what has already happened. And you must return before the coffee gets cold.

Yet people keep coming. A woman who wants to meet the lover who left her. A wife who wants to speak to her husband before his memory fades. A sister who never said goodbye. Each of them seeking something that cannot quite be undone — but perhaps, in some quiet way, can be healed.

Toshikazu Kawaguchi's Before the Coffee Gets Cold is a tender, quietly devastating novel that swept Japan before captivating readers around the world. With its simple premise and profound emotional depth, it is the kind of book you finish in an afternoon and think about for weeks.

Why Readers Everywhere Love This Novel

• A million-copy international bestseller, originally published in Japan
• A deeply moving meditation on love, regret, loss, and letting go
• Short, beautifully structured chapters — a single, immersive reading experience
• For adult readers who love quiet, emotionally resonant literary fiction
• The first book in the beloved Before the Coffee Gets Cold series

Rent Before the Coffee Gets Cold from BookJoy and take a quiet afternoon to sit with one of the most gently powerful novels of recent years.