Paperback

'I'm in story heaven with this book.' Cecelia Ahern, author of P.S. I Love You

A charming tale of friendship, love and loneliness in contemporary Japan

If you enjoyed We'll Prescribe You a Cat or Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, you'll love Sweet Bean Paste

Sentaro has failed. He has a criminal record, drinks too much, and his dream of becoming a writer is just a distant memory. With only the blossoming of the cherry trees to mark the passing of time, he spends his days in a tiny confectionery shop selling dorayaki, a type of pancake filled with sweet bean paste.

But everything is about to change.

Into his life comes Tokue, an elderly woman with disfigured hands and a troubled past. Tokue makes the best sweet bean paste Sentaro has ever tasted. She begins to teach him her craft, but as their friendship flourishes, social pressures become impossible to escape and Tokue’s dark secret is revealed, with devastating consequences.

Hardcover

Down a small alleyway in the heart of Tokyo, there is an underground cafe that’s been serving carefully brewed coffee for over a hundred years. Local legend says that this coffeeshop offers its customers something different — the chance to travel back in time. The rules, however, are far from simple: you must sit in one particular seat at one particular time of day. You can’t venture outside the cafe, nor can you change the present. And, most importantly, you have only the time it takes to drink a hot cup of coffee — or risk getting stuck forever. Over the course of one summer, four customers visit Cafe; Funiculi Funicula to return to the past: a heartbroken lover looking for closure; a nurse with a mysterious letter from her husband with Alzheimer’s; the cafe; waitress hoping for a final goodbye to her sister; and a mother whose child she may never get the chance to know.