Book Review: Before I Knew I Loved You by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Before I Knew I Loved You by Toshikazu Kawaguchi is the sixth book in the author’s series of stories about a magical coffeehouse where a person might be given the chance to go back (or, rarely, forward) in time. The series begins with Before the Coffee Gets Cold, but the books can stand alone.

There are very specific rules to this time travel. The travelers must sit in a special seat in the café, and while in the past, they cannot leave the seat. The voyage begins with a sip of specially prepared coffee and, most critically, before the coffee gets cold, they must drink it all and return to the present. Or else, ominously, they will not be able to fully return to the present.

Other rules include the conditions that they can only meet up with a person who had been in the coffeehouse at that particular time. And they have to accept that the visit will not change anything in the present. So who makes these journeys? Generally, it is people with specific regrets involving a particular person.

In this collection, the travelers are: 1) a young woman who treated her stepmother cruelly and wants to apologize, 2) a man waiting for the return of a junior high crush who could have been a sweetheart, 3) a woman with a cancer diagnosis who wants to travel to the future–to see if she’s still alive, and 4) a 14-year-old boy struggling with his father’s sudden death, who wants to see him one more time.

The stories are all bittersweet. What stands out is the kindness and concern shown by each of the café workers, customers, and time travelers. In a time of incivility, the civility of the characters may be the most magical ingredient of all.