Days at the Torunka Cafe: A Novel

· Harper Perennial · Narrated by Sadao Udea
1 review
Audiobook
8 hr
Unabridged
Eligible
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About this audiobook

KIRKUS EARPHONES AWARD WINNER

From the internationally bestselling author of the Morisaki Bookshop novels comes a charming and poignant story set at a quiet Tokyo café where customers find unexpected connection and experience everyday miracles.

Tucked away on a narrow side street in Tokyo is the Torunka Café, a neighborhood nook where the passersby are as likely to be local cats as tourists. Its regulars include Chinatsu Yukimura, a mysterious young woman who always leaves behind a napkin folded into the shape of a ballerina; Hiroyuki Numata, a middle-aged man who’s returned to the neighborhood searching for the happy life he once gave up; and Shizuku, the café owner’s teenage daughter, who is still coming to terms with her sister’s death as she falls in love for the first time.

While Café Torunka serves up a perfect cup of coffee, it provides these sundry souls 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.

KIRKUS EARPHONES AWARD WINNER From the internationally bestselling author of the Morisaki Bookshop novels comes a charming and poignant story set at a quiet Tokyo café where customers find unexpected connection and experience everyday miracles. Tucked away on a narrow side street in Tokyo is the ...

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Ratings and reviews

1 review
Paul Acevedo
November 8, 2025
The reader takes some getting used to. Unlike the author's previous books, this one is read by a man, and he has a thick Japanese accent. He mispronounces English words now and then, and the microphone picks up breathing and swallowing sounds at times. Despite that, he does a fine job of bringing the book's charming characters to life. The book is made of several long chapters, each told from the point of view of a different character. I wouldn't have minded staying with the protagonist of the first chapter, but he does appear as a side character in the third story. Also, the third chapter is told my the Cafe owner's daughter, so it would have been nice to have a female reader for that one. Anyway, the story is so cozy and nice, and the characters so like veable, that fans of this author won't want to miss this book. The theme of reuniting with people after a long time recurs in all three stories, and it's quite interesting.
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About the author

Satoshi Yagisawa is the internationally bestselling author of Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, his debut novel which won the Chiyoda Literature Prize, More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, and Days at the Torunka Café. He lives in Japan.

Satoshi Yagisawa is the internationally bestselling author of Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, his debut novel which won the Chiyoda Literature Prize, More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, and Days at the Torunka Café. He lives in Japan.

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