As expected, Before We Say Goodbye is as brilliant as it's predecessors; highly emotive, insightful, and filled with beauty of life and grief, this book offers an intimate look at the human condition, and empathising with each of the characters as their stories unfold is an inevitability. A tearjerker from start to finish.

Before We Say Goodbye contains four separate tales from the special coffee shop in which patrons can go back in time. It occurs a year after the first series of tales in Before The Coffee Gets Cold and of the two I prefer this book. The book itself is divided up into four chapters per tale: The Husband, The Farewell, The Proposal and The Daughter. I found each one to be thought provoking and melancholy but hopeful. The Farewell was a particular favourite but was so so bittersweet. I won't go into much detail because it'll spoil the stories but if you're interested in the human condition and getting second chances then this might be a good read for you. Its a quick read and full of great characters and lessons for life. I'm docking a star just based on the repetitive nature of the "rules" for going back in time which I felt could have been edited out after the first tale but its not hugely annoying. I am already planning to read the next book. I am really enjoying the series. Thank you for the ARC and as always these are my own opinions.

A beautiful end to Before the Coffee Gets Cold Series. Lovely, beautiful and moving.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.

Having read the previous three books in this series I can fully admit that THIS tore at my heart the most. When I got to the end of each story, I was either silently crying with a little smile or frown on my face. It was an emotional book to read but I also found comfort and peace whilst reading it. My only issue is that having read the previous books, the reiterating of rules had me a little nodding off at times, but if i were to have just picked this up standalone I would appreciate the rules being explained as they were. Put the book down and the profound thoughts of the world I live in and humanity were buzzing around my silly little mind.
Get the hankies ready.

I fell in love with this series when I picked up Book 1 by chance and my heart has fallen more and more in love with every new edition. In what I believe is the final book in this series, the magic and mystery is brought back to life one more time.

Before We Say Goodbye by Toshikazu Kawaguchi is the latest book set in the magical time-travelling Funiculi Funicula café. Translated from its original Japanese, it follows its highly successful predecessors, Before the Coffee Gets Cold and Tales from the Café. There’s also Before Your Memory Fades but I haven’t read that one!

Before We Say Goodbye is set a year after the first book in the series, Before the Coffee Gets Cold and is constructed as four short stories. The overarching theme is people who want to go back to the past in order to change something in their present. But that is very much not in the rules of time travel here. Nothing you do in the past can affect the future. They have to asses and deal with their grief and regrets in other ways.

The first story is about a husband who regrets his selfish ways, the second focuses on the love of a couple for their dog, the third is about an engaged couple who have crossed-wires and the last tale was about people caught up in the 2011 earthquake.

While I will say it felt a little repetitive when it came to explaining the cafe’s time-travel rules in each story (due to them originally being published as separate stories) each made up for that by packing such a unique emotional punch and delivering a beautiful little moral message.

As is Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s signature of this series, in Before We Say Goodbye, the scene is set quickly but in such a way that you are drawn immediately in and know the tears will be pricking the corners of your eyes before too long. A heart-warming way to spend a few hours.

I don’t know where to begin with this.

The 4th book in this series wonderfully written but very emotional.

A beautiful book but also so sad.

The story of the woman who had lost her dog made me cry all the way through.

The author deals with grief so well.

Highly recommend

The author has done it again, sucker-punched me right in the soul.
I do absolutely recommend starting with the first book as it introduces the cafe and recurring characters and provides context for events that happen here.
After the third book didn’t quite do it for me I was beginning to worry that I’d had enough of the series but I shouldn’t have feared. This is beautiful, poignant and I will be thinking about these stories for some time.

This series is one I will cherish forever. Especially this book which follows closely 4 stories of those who are grieving after the death of a loved one.

The second story in particular (The Farewell) really hurt me, as it’s about a couple who lose their dog, but all of these stories closely follow the passage of time and the idea of even though we can’t change the past, we can change our outlook on life and overall see the brighter side of things.

This book is such a beautiful addition to the series, and hats off to Geoffrey Trousselot for the translation, I am constantly blown away by the language and descriptions of physical and metaphorical concepts throughout the series.

4.5⭐ rounded to 5⭐

In the fourth instalment of the Before The Coffee Gets Cold series, there is a husband with something important left to say, the woman who couldn’t bid her dog farewell, the woman who couldn’t answer a proposal and the daughter who drove her father away.

I absolutely flew through this one in a few hours! I really loved all of the stories. In the first story, I really enjoyed learning more about the cafe's rules and how the time travel aspect happens. I had tears when I got to the end. In the second story, I didn't think this one would hit me as hard as it did, especially as I have an animal called Apollo and I consistently worry about him dying. From start to finish, I was crying my eyes out. It was by far the most saddest and relatable out of all of the stories of this series. In the third story, I really liked this story, although it was sad but it didn't feel as memorable as the other stories in this book. In this fourth story, I feel like it had an important reflection on regret of how family members are treated and looking at things through a different lens.

⚠️ CWs: grief, death, death of parent, animal death, infertility; mentions pregnancy, injury/injury detail, natural disaster ⚠️

Thank you to Pan Macmillan, Picador and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book!

Very emotional book that will 10000% make you feel something. Really beautiful story that I will remember for a long time.

The fourth book in the 'Before the Coffee Gets Cold' series and once again I couldn't resist it. As always the stories are heart-wrenching and the messages of them all are beautiful. Since the first book I have struggled with the writing style (note that this book is translated so I'm not sure if this is based on Kawaguchi's writing style, or is due to the work of the translator Geoffrey Trousselot). The language is very simple so I do find the dialogue unrealistic and awkward at times. I see past this to enjoy the stories but there is starting to be some repetition, so I think this may have to be the last in the series I read - assuming there'll be more.

It is a lovely series of books though and I'm sure its fanbase will be delighted to get more stories in the future! The staff and guests of Café Funiculi Funicula are a delight and the magical time travel elements are unique.

In this series of four intertwined short stories, Kawaguchi returns to the cafe where time travel is possible. These are beautiful stories of love, loss and moving on and I'm not afraid to admit to a little weep every so often, while reading.
By following a series of very strict rules people can return to a past experience in the cafe and during the time it takes for a cup of coffee to go cold they can revisit a person or incident that haunts them. A husband, a mother, a lover and a daughter revisit moments in their pasts that they are not proud of and through moments of self-reflection and reliving the conversation they find peace.

It's a beautiful idea and it's beautifully portrayed. Sometimes a little stilted in the translation, Before We Say Goodbye deals with small moments that have big consequences with the requisite sparseness of Japanese writers that I've loved in the past.

It's both magic realism and realist magic and it works beautifully for a quiet reflective read.

Another brilliant installment from Toshikazu Kawaguchi.

If you have read Before the Coffee Gets Cold then you will know that the magical Cafe Funiculi Funicula allows patrons to travel back in time, but there are rules.

I really like that each person's story reminds you of the rules and the questions each person would have, it allows you to read in one sitting and also to read separately over time and think about each story more slowly.

I would be quite happy if this series never ended, always a treat to pick up a new one and see what people do with this one time chance to go back.

This is the 4th book in the Before the coffee gets cold series and I thought it was the best one yet. These gentle but poignant and beautifully told stories are imaginative and thought provoking. Full of wisdom, heartfelt and gorgeous.

Before We Say Goodbye is the fourth in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series, but you don't need to have read the others to enjoy it.

We return once again to the Café Funiculi Funicula. People bring their troubles, regrets and hopes and a desire to travel back to the past to meet someone. But they have to decide whether to go back knowing they cannot change the past by doing so. This is often a source of disappointment and confusion for the potential time traveller and yet each time they, and we, realise why it can be worth the journey anyway.

This was another enjoyable and moving read in the series.

I was bawling by the end of this book, like I've done with the previous three. These stories are so heartwarming and sad, you can't help but feel for the people who need the closure that the coffee shop brings. If you haven't read these books, they are a must read.

‘If you could go back, who would you want to meet?’

My thanks to Pan Macmillan for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Before We Say Goodbye’ by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. It was translated from the Japanese by Geoffrey Trousselot.

This is Book 4 in his ‘Before the Coffee Gets Cold’ series, that features stories of café customers who are offered the unique experience of travelling back in time in order to connect with someone important to them.

After Book 3’s visit to the Donna Donna café in Hakodate, the story returns to Tokyo and the original Funiculi Funicula café.

In ‘Before We Say Goodbye’ each story involves someone wishing to say goodbye to a loved one even though it is made very clear in the second of the rules that govern the experience that “there is nothing you can do while there that will change the present.”

The book opened with a handy relationship map of characters, including the café employees. Its Prologue provides a reminder of the ‘annoying rules’. The book follows the format of its predecessors of four chapters, each focusing upon a customer and their journey.

Overall, I found the stories within ‘Before We Say Goodbye’ quite moving and felt that they embodied a sense of ‘mono no aware’, the Japanese idiom for the awareness of impermanence.

I have read all of the books in this series and consider them excellent. I am always recommending them to friends for their unique combination of whimsy and sensitivity to issues linked to grief and loss.

Highly recommended.

Another beautifully written story that really tugs at the heart strings. The themes of grief, acceptance and moving on are well portrayed and you're left feeling satisfied after every story.

Absolutely fantastic.

I like these books, but I don’t love them. However they’re perfect for when you want a quick and easy read. I can see why people love these books, but when I’m reading I don’t look for the deeper meaning behind books, so I feel like some of the impact is a bit lost on me. I do recommend this series as I know there’s some people who will love it, but it’s just not for me. If more books are published for this series, I probably won’t read them as I did find this book to be repetitive at times, and very similar to the previous books.