Toshikazu Kawaguchi's uniquely original novel, Before The Coffee Gets Cold, is set in a café called Funiculi Funicula. The café has a magical stool that allows customers to travel back in time to the past, or forward into the future. There are strict rules, however:

1. The time traveller cannot change the past or the future.

2. While in the past/future, they must finish their coffeee before it gets cold or else they'll be turned into a ghost who will be bound to the café forever.

3. They can only meet with someone who has previously visted the café.

The novels follows the lives of the café staff and customers who use the stool for their own personal journeys. The first café time traveller is a customer called Fumiko who travels back in time to try to mend the relationship with her boyfriend, who left Japan to pursue his dream job in the US.

Next up on the stool is nurse and regular customer, Kohtake, who goes back into the past to find a letter written by her husband who suffers from early-onset Alzheimer's. Local bar owner and another café regular, Hirai, also goes back in time in an attempt to restore the relationship with her sister who was killed in a car accident.

Finally, Kei, the café co-owner, travels to the future to speak with her unborn daughter. Each story is progressively more heartbreaking, but the author's message is clear: the past cannot be changed, but the future remains open and full of possibility.

While I found the pacing slow at times, the originality of the concept and the emotional depth of the stories kept me engaged. This is a thoughtful and imaginative book that's definitely worth picking up.