Before Your Memory Fades

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What to expect

The million-copy bestselling series.

Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s touching Before Your Memory Fades, translated from Japanese by Geoffrey Trousselot, explores the age-old question: what would you do if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?


On the hillside of Mount Hakodate in northern Japan, Cafe Donna Donna is fabled for its dazzling views of Hakodate port. But that’s not all. Like the charming Tokyo cafe Funiculi Funicula, Cafe Donna Donna offers its customers the extraordinary experience of travelling through time.

From the author of Before the Coffee Gets Cold and Tales from the Cafe comes another heartfelt story of lost souls hoping to take advantage of the cafe's time-travelling offer. Among some familiar faces, readers will also be introduced to:

The daughter who begrudges her deceased parents for leaving her orphaned
The comedian who aches for his beloved and their shared dreams
The younger sister whose grief has become all-consuming
The young man who realizes his love for his childhood friend too late . . .

Featuring Kawaguchi's signature wistful storytelling, Before Your Memory Fades is full of heart and emotion.

Catch up on the rest of the series with Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Tales from the Cafe, Before We Say Goodbye, and Before We Forget Kindness.

Critics Review

The third novel in the international bestselling Before the Coffee Gets Cold series. Having read the first two, we can attest it will be just the thing to curl up with on a rainy afternoon.

Sheerluxe

User Reviews

Book 5.0
Narration 4.0
5.0
4.0
Another lovely addition to the Before the Coffee gets Cold series. Such wonderful stories both uplifting and sad, each leaving a message or lesson about life to the reader, all told within one setting of a magical coffee shop. Initially, with so many characters introduced, I found it hard to keep up with who was who but once I settled into the story and the characters gained more depth as the story proceeded I was able to figure out who is who. This is perhaps a downside to the audiobook setting as it is easier to flip back to pages if you get lost in physical book form. The narration was great and I enjoyed hearing the Japanese names of characters and places pronounced properly. I was momentarily taken out of the story at the particular narration choice of one character as it was slightly jarring compared to the rest. They are from a different area of Japan and in order to illustrate this narrator used a Tennessee accent, which honestly made me laugh a little as it seemed a little absurd as it is set in Japan! However, I think it did serve well in illustrating into the English translation that they were from a different area with a different dialect.
Bones 24/10/2023

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