By Toshikazu Kawaguchi
I read this over a couple of days in the middle of October, 2023.
It has the characteristic sentence structure and style of a lot of translated East Asian fiction, which makes it a slightly jarring read for a page or so, before it becomes natural.
It’s a wonderful idea: the coffee shop where you can travel in time, for just a bit, but you can only stay in the shop. The story is structured around four women who travel: to see a boyfriend, to see a dead sister, to talk to a husband with a neurodegenerative disease, and to see a future daughter.
It’s emotionally compelling and some of the scenes are wonderfully raw and wrought. You fall in love with the characters, the rotating cast of this perpetually cool shop hidden underground in a Tokyo alley. The fact that it’s translated from the original Japanese adds that extra dimension of cultural unfamiliarity which makes it even more engaging.
Some of the descriptions of the women are oddly … iffy, and it is sometimes a bit twee and unsubtle, but overall a lovely read.