"Oh, gosh, is that the time? Sorry, I have to go," the man mumbled evasively, as he stood up and reached for his bag.
"What?" the woman said.
She glared with uncertainty. She hadn't heard him say it was over. But he had called her — his girlfriend of three years — to come out for a serious conversation . . . and now he had suddenly announced he was going to work in America. He was to leave immediately — in a few hours.
If you could go back, who would you want to meet? In a small back alley of Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. Local legend says that this shop offers something else besides coffee — the chance to travel back in time. Over the course of one summer, four customers visit the café in the hopes of making that journey. But time travel isn't so simple, and there are rules that must be followed. Most important, the trip can last only as long as it takes for the coffee to get cold. This novel explores the age-old question: What would you change if you could travel back in time?
Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.
4 comments:
This is a compelling opening quote. Is it a translation, too? My book is The Girl with the Louding Voice
Yes, Anne, it's translated by Geoffrey Trousselot. The café in the story is located in Tokyo, and the author's name sounds Japanese to me, so I assume it was originally written in Japanese. I looked on Amazon just now, and it seems to be translated into several languages.
Oooh, sounds like a fascinating novel! I love any kind of story that plays with time. I'd either go back in time to see my grandmother or my dad again :)
Sue
Book By Book
Sue, you made me remember a dream I had after my dad died when I was a young mother. I asked him, in the dream, if mom knew he was back. I haven't thought of that in years.
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