The Full Moon Coffee Shop

 

The Full Moon Coffee Shop / Mai Mochizuki
trans. from the Japanese by Jesse Kirkwood
NY: Ballantyne, 2024, c2020.
228 p.

This was brand new to my library so I quickly read it as a lighter pick for the end of Women in Translation Month. It was quirky and amusing as a whole. The cover is lovely, and if you look closely you will see a major theme in his book: the moon is an astrological chart. 

I didn't know much about it except the quick summary in my library catalogue, so I went into it open to anything. It feels like it's trying very hard to be a Studio Ghibli film - so many recent Japanese books feel heavily influenced by that body of work. Maybe there is a flood of Japanese authors writing in this style, or maybe it's just the ones getting translated! I felt that this book reminded me of the recent translation of The Kamogawa Food Detectives (written by a man) that I've been hearing lots about - then I realized that it's the same translator. 

Anyhow, this book was entertaining. It's short and a quick read, especially if you skim the complicated astrology parts like I did ;) The concept is that a group of loosely connected Japanese people are all stuck in their lives somehow, and their lives are changed and set onto new paths when they encounter the mysterious Full Moon Coffee Shop, a food truck that sets up in random places and serves customers what they need (no orders allowed). 

As our first character finds the shop, in a park under the stars, she is surprised to be served by cats. And talking cats who walk on two feet and wear an apron, too. I could picture the animated feature! These cats are forms taken by greater beings, who then explain the stars and planets to the customer, showing them their astrological charts and pointing out why they are stuck and the attitudes to take to move on to the next phase of their lives. This was interesting to a point, and it made me wonder about my own natal chart -- but the details were a bit thorough. I think if you already know something about astrology or if you're very interested in it anyhow, you'll get a bit more out of these sections. 

The book follows five characters who are all changed by their individually crafted desserts at the Full Moon Coffee Shop. And as the book progresses, we are shown the links between the characters and why they might have been lucky enough to have received this guidance at the right moments of their lives. It goes back to childhood and kindness to cats. 

This wasn't as twee as it sounds; there were good characters facing trials in their lives, and the coffee shop (sometimes experienced in a dream) is a way to make sense of what's happening to them - I can see the appeal. Mixed in to the novel is some solid life advice, no matter what house your rising planet is in. Receiving life advice from unexpected sources reminds me of What You Are Looking For Is In the Library by Michiko Aoyama, which even has the same episodic structure and loose connections between characters. They might be good companion reads, if you can take that high a dose of quirkiness all at once!