Tales from the Café: A Novel, Toshikazu Kawaguchi, author; Kevin Shen, narrator
In this second book of a three part series, the reader is taken to a café, located in a basement. This café is known for its ability to take a customer on a trip backwards or forwards in time, though most choose to go back. If a customer wishes to revisit or visit a moment that he wants to relive and/or deal with, a particular waitress is involved. She is tasked to pour a cup of coffee before the experience begins.
Each customer wishing to time travel, may only revisit and travel to a person who has also been in the café, and the experience will take place in the café. They may have only one chance at it. The customer is bound to follow certain rules, the most important of which is the one that requires the entire trip to take place in the time required for the coffee in the cup to cool and the cup to be emptied. Otherwise the customer will be trapped, will become a ghost and be forced to occupy a particular seat in the café, ad infinitum.
Currently, that seat is occupied by a woman who failed to follow the rules and is condemned to read novels placed before her forever. When she gets up to go to the bathroom, the customer may take her seat, and the experience will begin. Another rule is that the traveler cannot change the outcome of any experience, in any way. In addition, the customer must remain in the seat at all times, once seated in that chair, or the experience will be ended abruptly. Finally, only one trip is permitted, so it is important to follow the rules.
All of the reasons for wanting to return to a particular time, to perhaps make amends or assuage guilt, are touching and reasons the reader can readily identify with from their own lives or the lives of others that they know. The characters deal with loss and grief, lies and secrets, regrets and remorse. We have all made mistakes, all said or done something we wish we had not. Although they cannot change the outcome, they can change their feelings about the events in question. Ultimately, they seek, and hopefully attain, happiness. The stories are about forgiveness, overcoming guilt and shame, achieving recovery and attaining a more contented life, which all of the characters seem to wish for others, and also want to attain for themselves. It is a brief, but optimistic novel. It is not necessary to read the first in order to enjoy this one.