By now, we trust that the name Toshikazu Kawaguchi has become familiar to you. If it hasn’t yet, then we recommend reading our reviews of Before We Say Goodbye and, more recently, Before We Forget Kindness.
In the notable Café Funiculi Funicula, customers can travel to the past or future exactly one time. They cannot change the present, nor can they move from their seat. Most importantly, they only have until their cup of coffee gets cold before they must return to the present. Otherwise, they risk becoming a ghost.
We meet four new patrons in the sixth installment in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series, translated from Japanese by Geoffrey Trousselot. Here are our four main takeaways from Before I Knew I Loved You!
Book Overview: Before I Knew I Loved You
Content warnings: death of loved ones, grief and loss depiction, mentions of cancer, a car accident, and partial amnesia
Summary: In Before I Knew I Loved You, Toshikazu Kawaguchi takes us back to the warm heart of the mysterious Funiculi Funicula Cafe, with another four guests whose luminous stories of love, lost and won again, will reaffirm your belief in its eternal potential. In this book, we meet:
- The girl who couldn’t call her mother, and yearns to reconnect with her
- The man who waited for a reply from his girlfriend, and never heard from her
- The woman anxious to travel ahead to know what her future holds
- The student who travels back to meet his father again
Yet the same rules always apply – you must return before the coffee gets cold. And while it does, memories are revisited, people are changed for ever, and the enduring power of love transcends the boundaries of time.
The Runaway – Let Love In
Our first story in Before I Knew I Loved You is about Azami Kishimoto. She who ran away from home in 1999 when she was 14 years old. Now 20 years later, she wants to travel back in time to speak to her late stepmother Yumiko and apologize for how she acted as a daughter. But there was no way of knowing if Yumiko had ever visited the cafe, another condition to meeting someone in the past. The only way Azami could go back and speak to Yumiko was to call her phone from the cafe. Even then, there was still a risk of Yumiko not picking up in time. But Azami would take her chances, knowing she couldn’t meet her stepmother face to face.
The Patient Man – Patience Pays Off
In the second story, we meet a man named Okishima who had traveled back in time in the autumn of 2012. He wanted to meet with his longtime crush, Kanna Ozaki, and try to clear up a misunderstanding from Valentine’s Day earlier in the year. After a terrible accident that day, Kanna lost part of her memory, and Okishima didn’t get the chance. Once he goes back in time, he nearly loses the opportunity again. But he manages to tell her to meet him at the cafe on White Day (March 14) in the hopes that she’ll eventually remember. And for the seven years since their last meeting, Okishima goes to the cafe and waits for her.
The Secret – Do Things Scared
Our takeaway from the third story is one we’ll be holding close to our hearts. It follows a woman named Rikako who has recently been proposed to by her boyfriend Gaku Hanada. She had also just been given a cancer diagnosis saying there was a 60% chance she’d still be alive in five years. Rikako wants to turn down his proposal, unable to crush his happiness with the chance that she could die. So, she goes to the cafe, hoping to travel to the future and find out if she’s alive. (We won’t spoil what she discovers.) But Rikako reaches out to Gaku again in the present. Then, her fears of uncertainty and the future are overshadowed by her desire to find happiness with this man for as long as she can.
The Father And Son – Stay True To Your Word
Finally, the last story in Before I Knew I Loved You follows a junior high student named Tsuguo Suga. He comes to the cafe and orders carbonara, a dish his late father used to make a lot before he passed away four months ago from a heart condition. Ryutaro raised Tsuguo on his own after his wife left, and Tsuguo vowed to never disappear from his father’s life. Tsuguo starts to cry upon tasting the dish, and he resolves to travel to the past and see his father one more time. He goes back to six months before his father’s sudden death, where they share a tender conversation. Even though his estranged mother is back in his life in the present, Tsuguo keeps his promise in his own way.
With four new stories centering familial and romantic love that’s been gained, lost, patient, and persistent, Before I Knew I Loved You by Toshikazu Kawaguchi reminds us that our feelings are universal.
Before I Knew I Loved You by Toshikazu Kawaguchi comes out May 26th. You can order a copy of it here!
Are you looking forward to Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s latest book, Before I Knew I Loved You? Have you read the other books in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series? Let us know on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram!
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