Before We Say Goodbye: A Novel (Before the Coffee Gets Cold Series, 4)

Before We Say Goodbye is the fourth book in Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s series about a special cafe in Japan that allows visitors to go back in time. Like the other books in the series this book is comprised of short stories all centering around this cafe. This is the second book I’ve read in the series and I have to say all of the stories are wonderfully written and will pull at the heartstrings of the readers.

The rules of going back in time at the cafe are: You must wait for the woman dressed in white (the ghost) to get up from her seat so you can sit in it, you cannot change the present no matter what you do in the past, you cannot stand up from your seat, and you must not let your cup of coffee get cold otherwise you will turn into a ghost.

In each of these stories, the person going back in time would like to obtain somekind of closure in their life. Kawaguchi does a fantastic job of creating original, thought-provoking stories. The main characters in the cafe are all fun and have a matter-of-factly tone when they speak even though the cafe is so special. Readers will enjoy each and every story in this book.