Before I Knew I Loved You by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, translated by Geoffrey Trousselot
Reading Toshikazu Kawaguchi is akin to taking a necessary soul-satisfying pause in the middle of a hectic day with a refreshing cold beverage or soothing cup of tea. Before I Knew I Loved You is the sixth book in the best-selling magical, heart-warming series that began with Before the Coffee Gets Cold. Take time to relax and be carried along as new café visitors respond to the question: “What would you do if you were offered the chance to go back in time?”
There is a special seat in the fabled, tiny Tokyo Funiculi Funicula Café where only a fortunate few are afforded the rare opportunity to travel in time and revisit loved ones who may be distant or dead. The café was founded in 1874 by Toki Tokita, with ownership, including its preternatural features, passed down to matrilineal descendants. The prologue summarizes the rules that include “you can only meet someone who has or will visit the café, the past cannot be changed, you must wait for the chair’s occupant to voluntarily move, you must remain seated for the duration and your time is short.” Typically, the experience from the ritual pouring of the hot coffee into the guest’s cup to reawakening is eight to ten minutes and, crucially, a guest may only travel once.
Prospective travelers are enjoined to observe certain constraints, the strictest being that they must return before their coffee gets cold or experience transmogrification into a ghost, as did the mysterious woman in white who occupies the chair that serves as the portal. Once a day with no advance warning, she will set aside the book she is reading, rise and walk to the restroom. This brief absence presents the sole opportunity for travel until the following day. Guests arrive in the café preoccupied, anxious, wistful or lost, seeking answers to unsettled questions and hoping to journey into the past or, in rare cases, into the future. Many come to repair damaged relationships, convey regrets or visit with someone they dearly loved. Each slender volume presents the stories of four people and the memories that impelled them to the café.
Before I Knew I Loved You contains a helpful relationship map of characters before the individual tales begin. The key consistent characters are café owner, barista, self-taught master chef and widower Nagare Tokita, his precocious three-year-old daughter Miki, café waitress Kazu Tokita and Kazu’s mother, the aforementioned resident ghost Kaname Tokita. With an imposing height of nearly 6’5”, Nagare is a gentle giant whose skill and knowledge allow customers to order nearly any Japanese, Chinese, Western or other ethnic dish which will be prepared to perfection. Kazu pours the coffee as part of the time travel ritual and explains to the guest that they must drink the coffee before it completely cools. It was her mother, Kaname Tokita, who had returned to the past to connect with her late husband but failed to finish her coffee and, as a consequence, was transformed into the woman in the white dress. There are several other regulars familiar with time travel and the café ritual who return for beverages and conviviality.
The four stories contained in this volume concern a now mature teenage runaway deeply regretting her cold treatment of her stepmother, a man who annually returns to the café patiently awaiting an opportunity to contact a long-ago high-school girlfriend and two other tales that share charm, depth and pathos, encompassing universal themes.
Toshikazu Kawaguchi questions the reader, “If you could go back, who would you want to meet?” Before I Knew I Loved You presents everyone with the opportunity to contemplate their relationships with those most dear and meaningful to them. Each volume is a soul-satisfying literary gift.
About Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Toshikazu Kawaguchi was born in Osaka, Japan, in 1971. He formerly produced, directed and wrote for the theatrical group Sonic Snail. As a playwright, his works include COUPLE, Sunset Song and Family Time. The novel Before the Coffee Gets Cold is adapted from a 1110 Productions play by Kawaguchi, which won the 10th Suginami Drama Festival grand prize. It was followed by Tales From the Cafe, Before Your Memory Fades, Before We Say Goodbye, Before We Forget Kindness and Before I Knew I Loved You.
