Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s beloved Before for the Coffee Gets Cold [Nov. 17, Hanover Sq. Press] has been a runaway bestseller in Japan and the UK … and its success is poised to cross the pond, if all the librarian love is any indication. (Let’s be real, isn’t it always?) This charming, wonderfully strange, little November LibraryReads pick (just four chapters long!) asks the intriguing question: If you could travel back in time, what would you change?

Down a nondescript Tokyo alleyway lies a café steeped in urban legend. Locals say that for over a hundred years, the coffeeshop has offered something unique – a specially brewed cup of coffee that can take you back in time to a moment of your choice. But this is time travel, and there are rules … the most important being that your trip must last only as long as it takes to drink a hot cup of coffee, or you will get stuck forever.

Over the course of one summer, four customers visit the café and accept the risk to make the transformational trip. Will you?

Before the Coffee Gets Cold is available for request on Edelweiss and Netgalley!