Before the Coffee Gets Cold Book 5: Before We Forget Kindness by Toshikazu Kawaguchi - Fiction - Paperback

Details
Condition: New
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781035046287
Publisher: Picador (Pan Macmillan)
Age Range: Adult (16+)

Overview
Before We Forget Kindness is the fifth instalment in Toshikazu Kawaguchi's phenomenon Before the Coffee Gets Cold series, translated from Japanese by Geoffrey Trousselot. This new paperback edition returns to the same quiet Tokyo basement café where a single cup of coffee can carry a visitor back through time. Four new guests arrive carrying private regrets and fragile hopes, each hoping that revisiting a single moment might change how they face the present. Gentle, wise and deeply moving, it's a perfect next read for fans of the series or anyone drawn to hopeful, character-led Japanese fiction.

About the Book
Kawaguchi's signature premise returns in full force: enter the café, sit in the one particular seat, and you may travel back in time – but only until the coffee grows cold, and only if you return before it does. In Before We Forget Kindness, four visitors take up the invitation: a father who could not bring himself to allow his daughter to marry, a woman who never managed to give Valentine's Day chocolates to the person she loved, a boy longing to show his parents, now divorced, that he can still smile, and a wife cradling a child who has not yet been named. Each story is small in scale but enormous in feeling, built from ordinary regrets rather than dramatic tragedy. Kawaguchi, who began the series as a stage play, writes with the patient, theatrical rhythm of someone used to watching people in a single room over a single evening. The translation preserves the softness and restraint of the original Japanese, letting silences and small gestures carry as much weight as dialogue. Readers who have followed the café through earlier volumes will recognise familiar staff and rituals, while newcomers can enjoy this as a self-contained, gently magical story of regret, forgiveness and the quiet courage required to reconnect with the people we love.

• Book 5 in the multi-million-copy bestselling Before the Coffee Gets Cold series
• Brand-new paperback edition, translated from the original Japanese
• Four emotionally resonant, self-contained stories about regret and forgiveness
• Short chapters make it ideal for commuting, travel or bedtime reading
• A thoughtful gift for readers of cosy, reflective Japanese fiction
• Fits neatly alongside earlier books in the series for collectors

About the Author
Toshikazu Kawaguchi is a Japanese playwright and director. Before the Coffee Gets Cold began life as a stage play, for which Kawaguchi received the Suginami Drama Festival's Grand Prize, before he adapted it into the novel that launched an international bestselling series. His warm, quietly theatrical storytelling has been translated into dozens of languages and has sold millions of copies worldwide, resonating with readers seeking comfort, hope and gentle emotional honesty.

Why You'll Love This Paperback
Tender, hopeful and beautifully translated, Before We Forget Kindness offers the same comforting magic that made the series a worldwide sensation – ideal for shelf, gift, or a quiet evening with coffee in hand.

Please Note: Cover design may vary slightly from the image shown; you will receive the current UK paperback edition with this ISBN.