Book Review: Days at the Torunka Café

A 224 pages long warm hug

Welcome at the Torunka Café, a hard to find coffee place, nestled in an alleyway that branches off of the market street. People who are meant to find the place, will see a tabby cat, that they only have to follow to stumble upon this haven of peace. The Torunka Café is a place where its denizens can quiet their mind, where the proprietor pours a delicious cup of coffee, where his daughter’s enthusiasm mesmerises customers and a part-time student completes this three-headed team.

Three stories, following different characters, show how lives that have crossed in the past and grown divergent, can join again at the right time. The writing style is quite simple, which symbolises the contents in a way. The Torunka Café shows the daily lives of both customer and barista, which are relatable since most of us lead simple lives. There is a real comfort in following people who have a normal job, worry about small things, make mistakes and try to rectify them, and seeing them finding their way.

The stories show snippets of people’s lives, with flashbacks to give context, but some things are left open-ended, which I usually don’t like, but for this novel it really fit. Though I found the events intriguing and I wanted to know what happened, the real magic happens in the message conveyed. In a culture where hard work, making promotion and earning money is the standard, Days at the Torunka Café offers comfort in knowing that there is another option. It shows the merits of slowing down, living consciously and enjoying the small things, like a cup of coffee, and the things that really matter, like the people around us.

Reading a book like this is perfect when life feels cluttered, stressed or unsure. Yagisawa gives his readers the same feeling of comfort, company and peace as customers receive in the Torunka Café. There is a sentence on the back of the book that perfectly sums up the core of this beautiful novel:

“While the Torunka Café serves up a perfect cup of coffee, it provides these sundry should with nourishment far more lasting. Satoshi Yagisawa brilliantly illuminates the periods in our lives where we feel lost – and how we find our way again.”

If you decide to pick this book up, my advice is to grab a cup of coffee, savour every page, and enjoy.