Take another trip to Funiculì, Funiculà, a mystical cafe in Toyko where visitors can travel to a moment in the past. In this gorgeous follow up to Before the Coffee Gets Cold, we’re drawn into four more stories:
A man who goes back to see his best friend who died 22 years ago
A son who was unable to attend his own mother’s funeral
A man who traveled to see the girl who he could not marry
An old detective who never gave his wife that gift…
While the characters are able to jump back in time, there are a few rules they must understand – the most important one being that they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold. Otherwise they will forever be stuck in the cafe as a ghostly presence. Also, no matter what, the present and future cannot be altered. Despite these strict rules, the visitors in these stories decide that it is worth the risk. For them, it is a way to not change, but to make peace with the past.
With each story you’re left wondering… Will time travel provide them comfort or more heartbreak? Will the trip keep them stuck in the past and in a state of regret, or will it free them and help them to live in the present?
Now generally, magical realism is not my cup of tea, or should I say…my cup of coffee. Yet, I enjoyed both Tales from the Cafe and Before the Coffee Gets Cold through and through. The stories, from both the cafe’s visitors and the employees, will haunt you. And in this followup, we learn more about the ghostly lady in the white dress from book one, and it adds a whole new layer of meaning to the cafe and its history.
Tales from the Cafe is sad, inspiring, and uplifting all at once and its message is simple but important. Each story is a reminder to never take our loved ones for granted. Only in fiction can we travel to the past to say those things we wish we’d said. In real life, we don’t get those chances. Sometimes we need these little reminders to pause and reevaluate what’s important to us, and to be there for our loved ones right now, when we still have the chance.
Pawsitive Reads 