The Curious Kitten at Chibineko Kitchen by Yuta Takahashi
Published by Penguin Books on February 4, 2025
Age/Genres: Adult, Fiction
Goodreads
Your table awaits at the Chibineko Kitchen, where a soul-nourishing meal in the company of the resident kitten will transport you back in time to reunite with departed loved ones—for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold and The Midnight Library.
In a remote seaside town outside of Tokyo, Kotoko makes her way along a seashell path, lured by whispers of an enigmatic restaurant whose kagezen, or traditional meals offered in remembrance of loved ones, promise a reunion with the departed. When a gust of wind lifts off her hat, she sees running after it a young man who looks like her recently deceased brother. But it’s not her brother; it’s Kai, the restaurant’s young chef, who returns her hat and brings her to the tiny establishment, where he introduces her to Chibi, the resident kitten, and serves her steaming bowls of simmered fish, rice, and miso soup—the exact meal her brother used to cook for her. As she takes her first delicious bite, the gulls outside fall silent, the air grows hazy, and Kotoko begins a magical journey of last chances and new beginnings.
The Chibineko Kitchen is a seaside restaurant where people can order remembrance meals, and sometimes, the dead may appear.
I keep joking that I am in my Asian lit era, but really, I am. At first, it was the cats on the covers that made me look, but I have fallen in love with these quiet and beautiful tales. As with many of the other books I have read, The Curious Kitten at the Chibineko Kitchen is episodic in structure focusing on four people who were grieving the loss of a loved one. Each meal was a time for the person to remember their dearly departed, and I got to learn about the person who died and some of the best memories the diner had of them. I also eagerly awaited the meal where the person would have the opportunity to see their loved one again.
These stories were all rather touching, and they were emotional too. The story of the husband and wife and the son and his parents slayed me. They were so moving they had me splashing in a puddle of tears. There is just something really lovely about stories of healing and love that get to me. This book pushed me into a reflective mood while also leaving me quite happy. I found myself overwhelmed with feelings but in a good way.
I loved the concept, too. These meaningful meals (which all sounded amazing) gave the diner an opportunity to remember someone who was important to them, who they loved very much, who they missed. But as separate as this interactions seemed, Taahashi connected them, and I thought that was done well. It added a little something above and beyond, and I suppose, it also set the book up for sequels.
Overall, The Curious Kitten at the Chibineko Kitchen was a heartwarming book which nourished me in many ways. It filled my heart with warmth and joy while also gently reminding me to be more mindful and find my passion while living life to its fullest.
*ARC PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Published by Hanover Square Press on November 17, 2020
Age/Genres: Adult, Fiction
Goodreads
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.
In Before the Coffee Gets Cold, 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?
If you had the chance to go back in time, why would you go? In Before the Coffee Gets Cold, we take four time travel trips via "that chair" in this magical cafe. The trips comes with many rules, the most important being that you must drink all the coffee before it gets cold.
The first trip back was the least emotional. It told the story of two lovers whose relationship had reached its end. After this one, have those tissues ready because they focus on relationships between husband and wife, sisters, and mother and child and were heartbreaking for me. Though the story was told in four parts, the people are connected, so there was a continuity I was not expecting. But it was the emotion of these "trips" that really captured my heart.
Each person had the opportunity to time travel, however, no matter what was said or done during that visit, it would not change the present. So, the question really is, why bother? And that was what was done so well here. It wasn't the outcome that would change, but rather, the person who made the trip. They would return to the present with some clarity and some healing.
Overall, I found my time at the cafe quite thoughtful and touching, and I am looking forward to returning soon.
your remembrance meal?
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