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Burke Book Club

"Before the Coffee Gets Cold" by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Celebrate AAPI (Asian American & Pacific Islander) Month by joining us for a discussion of of Kawaguchi's beautiful and moving story exploring the age-old question.

What would you change if you could go back in time? In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time. We meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the café’s time-travelling offer, in order to: confront the man who left them, receive a letter from their husband whose memory has been taken by early onset Alzheimer's, to see their sister one last time, and to meet the daughter they never got the chance to know. But the journey into the past does not come without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the café, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold . . .

Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s beautiful, moving story explores the age-old question: what would you change if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?

Click here to place a hold on a copy.

Burke Book Club meets on the third Wednesday of each month from 3:30 PM to 5 PM.  It is a monthly book discussion group through the Burke Branch Library. Please note that this month's discussion will be held on the fourth Wednesday of June. 

This program will take place by Zoom and registration is required. After registering, you will be emailed the link to join this Zoom meeting. If you have questions about the program or need help with set up, please contact Caroline at cpak@alexlibraryva.org.