Before Your Memory Fades: A Novel

by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Hardcover, 2022

Status

Available

Call number

895.63

Publication

Hanover Square Press (2022), Edition: Original, 320 pages

Description

Fantasy. Fiction. Literature. Science Fiction. HTML:The third novel in the international bestselling Before the Coffee Gets Cold series, following four new customers in a cafe where customers can travel back in time. On the hillside of Mount Hakodate in northern Japan, Cafe Donna Donna is fabled for its dazzling views of Hakodate port. But that's not all. Like the charming Tokyo cafe Funiculi Funicula, Cafe Donna Donna offers its customers the extraordinary experience of travelling through time. From the author of Before the Coffee Gets Cold and Tales from the Cafe comes another story of four new customers, each of whom is hoping to take advantage of the cafe's time-travelling offer. Among some familiar faces from Toshikazu Kawaguchi's previous novels, readers will also be introduced to: A daughter who begrudges her deceased parents for leaving her orphaned A comedian who aches for his beloved and their shared dreams A younger sister whose grief has become all-consuming A young man who realizes his love for his childhood friend too lateTranslated from Japanese by Geoffrey Trousselot and featuring signature heart-warming characters and wistful storytelling, in Before Your Memory Fades, Kawaguchi once again invites the reader to ask themselves: what would you change if you could travel back in time?.… (more)

Original language

English

ISBN

133542928X / 9781335429285

User reviews

LibraryThing member mbmackay
The third book In a series based on the same premise - time travel in a Japanese coffee shop.
The first book was fun - a novel idea, and interesting stories. I haven't read the second volume, but I'm guessing it is much the same as this one - more of the same as the initial book.
Without the novelty,
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the books become less interesting. No problem, but less of a spark. They still provide an insight for a westerner reader into the lives and concerns of average Japanese people, but I doubt if I will be looking for more volumes in the series.
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LibraryThing member Jenarbucci
I thought this book was just okay...... I wasn't crazy about the foreign names in the book. It made it confusing for me and hard to follow at times.
I felt that all the different events in the book were a bit repetitive and almost seemed predictable.
But overall, I did think the story was endearing
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and had a lot of heart.
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LibraryThing member blbooks
First sentence: "Why are you in Hokkaido?" Kei Tokita's voice sounded tinny coming from the handset.

Premise/plot: Before Your Memory Fades is a book of connected novellas. It is the THIRD book in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series. The premise of the series is that there is a cafe with special,
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'magical,' powers. There is one chair that will allow the occupant to travel forward or backward in time. But there are rules, of course there are rules. They have to stay seated, of course. They have to return to the present before the coffee turns cold. They can only meet people who have visited the cafe. Nothing they do in the past (or the future) will effect the present. Each story focuses on a journey (to the past or to the future). The 'main' characters are the staff of the cafe AND cafe regulars. (Think the sitcom Cheers). One of the running elements of this one is that one of the characters is ALWAYS reading a book--it is a book of questions (100, I believe) that pose various questions each with the premise of if the world was ending tomorrow...would you choose answer 1 or 2.

My thoughts: I picked this one up thinking it was book two. It wasn't. When did I realize this? Not until I was halfway through. Do I think it would have made more sense if I hadn't skipped book two (by accident)? Probably. Maybe. Do I think it would have been less confusing if I jotted down a list of characters? Definitely. Also I think if I had read the books--all three--in order and close together. I just had a hard time keeping track of the characters.

I liked the premise well enough. Though apparently there are two cafes with this magical ability? I had a hard time following some of the plot because the characters kept getting tangled up in my mind.
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LibraryThing member bookczuk
Still like this series, though it sometimes takes me a little while to remember who is who and if I've "met" them before. Is my memory fading?
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