Hidden away in a residential neighbourhood, The Marble Café is located at the end of a row of cherry blossom trees that line the side of a river. It is a very small café with only three tables and a counter that seats five. It's sounds really idyllic.
The manager of the café stumbled into it when he needed a job and was immediately hired. Since then he has basically had free reign in how he runs the café. Every Thursday a young woman comes in, sits at a particularly seat and orders a hot chocolate, regardless of the weather. However, he has not yet found enough courage to interact with her, even though she has intrigued him which is clear from the very first line of the book!
From this start, the reader is introduced to multiple characters with each story haven't a small connection. We meet a newly wed young woman who is in Sydney for her honeymoon. She is visiting Tooronga Zoo and meets a couple that is celebrating their 59th wedding anniversary and they don't know it but they have a connection. The connections are sometimes just the slightest link and I enjoyed looking for the connections in each chapter.
One of the mysterious characters is the café owner The Maestro. He is a man who seems to have his finger in lots of pies and at various points pops up in several of the stories pulling the strings to make things happen in various characters lives.
It isn't unusual for Japanese or Korean books of this nature to feature 4 or 5 connected stories. This book has 12 different stories, so they are more slice of life vignettes with very intriguing connections in each story. The whole collection is connected through the people who visit the café or at least know people who have visited.
I also enjoyed that a fair portion of the book had an Australian connection in terms of Japanese people who live or have lived in Australia, or have family members. It's not something I have seen in a Japanese book before.
Hot Chocolate on Thursday was Michiko Aoyama's first book published in Japan, although it was her third book that was translated into English. The good news is that there is a sequel called Matcha on Monday which is due to be released in a few weeks time. I can guarantee that I will be going out of my way to read that one!
I must confess that I am very impressionable. Every time I look at this book I start thinking about a fabulous European style hot chocolate! Yum.
I thoroughly enjoyed this and I am really looking forward to reading Matcha on Monday, and whatever else this author comes up with!
I am sharing this review with Foodies Read hosted at Based on a True Story, the Books in Translation Challenge hosted at Introverted Reader and Weekend Cooking which I host here.
Rating 4.5/5
Saturday - Butter chicken, rice and roti
Sunday - Butternut pumpkin soup
Monday - Chicken stir fry and rice
Tuesday - Baked Tuscan Chicken
Wednesday - Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry
Thursday -Paneer and Tomato Curry
Friday - Away
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