Before Your Memory Fades by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

I kept this book to read on the plane for the recent trip to Japan

Before Your Memory Fades is the third instalment in Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s celebrated series. It felt more gentle than the previous two, even though the subjects of the books are death and loss. As such, I didn’t find it as compelling. Maybe because I now know how the time-traveling café works and it is only a matter of getting to know new characters. Or was it because I was already in Japan and didn’t need to experience it through a book? That may explain how I read most of it upon my return.

The writing is still sensitive to the character’s pain and as ever, each tells a story of why they want to time travel.

In any case, I already bought the final two in the series so no doubt will be pining for another slice of Japan before the year is out.

One peak at the bookshop table where this book sits tells me there are many other Japanese and Korean authors making it to the mainstream so there is much to look forward to in between the times of me travelling to the continent.