Tales From The Cafe by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

This is the second in the charming Japanese series that takes place in a fantastical coffee shop, the first being Before the Coffee Gets Cold. In that international bestseller, customers return to the past or visit the future, as long as their coffee remains warm. You will enjoy this more if you have already read the first book.

Funiculi Funicula is a nine-seat basement coffee shop in a Tokyo back alley, where legend says customers can revisit moments with friends and family.

Gotaro raised the daughter of friends, never revealing he is not her biological father. Now, it is time to go back and ask for a blessing to do so. Kiyoshi is a sixty-year-old local police officer wishing to return and give his wife the birthday present he didn't have the chance to offer. A series regular at the cafe is Kyoko, whose mother just passed. Her brother arrives intending to visit their mother again. Katsuki arrives on Christmas Day to go forward into the future, wishing to know if the woman he loves will marry him. The most convoluted tale, it doesn't go as he planned.

The only seat in the cafe for this magic is always occupied by a ghost, a woman now trapped after breaking the major rule of staying after the coffee grew cold. Her daughter is the waitress, and the story of her, the owner Nagare, and his precocious seven-year-old daughter make this installment a little too heartwarming, a little too wistful. This is the second of six novels translated so far, so there are plenty more wishes to fulfill.

A very cozy story, with an extra dose of sweetness.

2017 (translated 2020) / Hardcover / 256 pages

My other review of Toshikazu Kawaguchi:

Before The Coffee Gets Cold