Fericire într-o ceașcă de cafea

At Funiculi Funicula, a café on a dark backstreet in Tokyo, guests can travel through time. They need a special seat and coffee made for the trip. People have used this seat for more than a century. Each must finish their drink before it grows cold. Those who fail cannot return and remain caught between times. No visit can change the present, but it may ease old grief.

One man hopes to see a friend who died 22 years ago. Another missed his mother's funeral. An old police officer has never given his wife a gift. A young man travels forward to check on those he will leave behind. The story also reveals the secret of the woman in white who usually holds the seat.

Toshikazu Kawaguchi's novel blends time travel with magical realism. It is for readers drawn to stories of loss, love, and missed chances. Its linked lives show how a new view of the past can loosen regret. The focus falls on human bonds and the joy people leave behind, rather than changing events.

This Folio reissue has a new cover. Iolanda Prodan translated the text from Japanese into Romanian.