Before Your Memory Fades

Perched on the slopes of Mount Hakodate in northern Japan, Café Donna Donna is well known for its breathtaking views of Hakodate port. Yet its true allure lies beyond the scenery. Much like the beloved Tokyo café Funiculi Funicula, this café offers its guests the rare chance to journey through time.

From the acclaimed author of Before the Coffee Gets Cold and Tales from the Café comes another collection of interconnected stories centered on four customers drawn to this remarkable opportunity. Alongside a few familiar characters, readers will meet a daughter resentful of the parents who left her behind, a comedian mourning lost love and unfulfilled dreams, a younger sister overwhelmed by grief, and a young man who recognizes his feelings for a childhood friend only when it is too late.

Beautifully translated from Japanese by Geoffrey Trousselot, Before Your Memory Fades continues Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s signature style of gentle warmth and quiet reflection, once again inviting readers to consider what they might change if they were given the chance to return to the past.