A café in a little back lane in Tokyo has been selling properly made coffee for more than a century. However, this coffee shop provides its patrons with a one-of-a-kind experience: the opportunity to journey back in time. 

 

Tales from the Cafe, by the author of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, is a narrative about four new customers, each of whom hopes to take advantage of Cafe Funiculi Funicula's time-traveling offer. 

 

Readers of Toshikazu Kawaguchi's previous novel will acknowledge the following characters: the man who returns to see his best friend who died 22 years ago, the son who was unable to attend his own mother's funeral, the man who traveled to see the girl he could not marry, and the old detective who never gave his wife a gift. 

 

This lovely, straightforward novel talks about people who must confront their past in order to go on with their lives. Kawaguchi once again asks the reader to consider what they would alter if they could travel back in time. 

 

I liked this book better than the last one. I was screaming, crying, and throwing up. My therapist will hear about this.