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In the six years since Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s Before the Coffee Gets Cold was translated into English, Japanese and Korean cozy books have made a grand impression on the US book scene.
I first stumbled across Before the Coffee Gets Cold while on vacation. I was perusing the shelves at a local bookstore (because: bibliophile!) and struggling to find something that piqued my interest. Luckily for me, the bookstore had one last copy of Kawaguchi’s novel. I bought it, and literally a page in, I knew I was hooked.
Now, I’m a huge fan of cozy books in general and I’ve harbored a soft spot for contemporary Japanese literature since I was first introduced to Haruki Murakami’s work. But the surreal tales Murakami spins are in an entirely other realm than the cozy novels making their way from not only Japan, but also Korea, to bookshelves in the US.
It goes without saying that each of these books has its own unique storyline, style, and characters. But to this reader, there’s something about the pacing of these cozy books that feels distinct from other cozy books.
To get into that, maybe we need to think about what “cozy” means. According to none other than Book Riot, in the broadest sense, cozies are “books that feel comforting like a warm hug.” Writer’s Digest explains cozy books as those that “generally feature a smaller cast of characters, be set in a smaller town, and have a more optimistic and upbeat tone. Above all, it has to have a satisfyingly happy ending. They offer comfort to their readers; a safe escape from the realities of our daily lives.”
This is interesting to me because the idea that cozy books are optimistic, upbeat, and comforting is definitely part of my personal understanding of this subgenre. Yet the cozy books on this list may be cozy, but they’re also often deeply philosophical. This introspective bent is something of a trend I’ve noticed in the Japanese and Korean cozy books I’ve encountered, and I’m not the only one.
This is a trend many have been referring to as “healing fiction.” Melissa D’Agnese writes that healing fiction “is a newly named genre, but these types of books have been popular in Japan and South Korea for decades.” She goes on to describe healing fiction’s focus on ordinary people struggling with things like heartbreak and loneliness, its tendency toward magical realism, and the outcome that the characters figure something out about their lives and move toward healing.
Whether you call it cozy or healing, it certainly doesn’t hurt that a surprising number of these books feature books, coffee, and/or cats in interesting ways. I mean, for many readers, those are three elements that embody the warm fuzzies.
Let me give you an example. Michiko Aoyama’s What You Are Looking For is in the Library revolves around a handful of different characters. It’s written as a story cycle where the common thread holding it all together is the local library. The librarian there is, shall we say, a bit odd. Regardless, each character is lost in their own way and ends up in this library where they inquire about books they think will help them. This mysterious librarian helps them and prints out a booklist for each of them, but mixed in with the books they requested, there’s always one title that’s out of place (for one woman, it’s a children’s picture book that has nothing to do with what she asked for). Those books turn out to be exactly what each character needs in order to find their way. And for the reader, there’s a lot to reflect on about what makes a “good” life.
So perhaps you’ll reach for Before We Forget Kindness (the fifth and most recent book in Kawaguchi’s series) or Satoshi Yagisawa’s popular Days at the Morisaki Book Shop (which has a sequel out as of last year). Or maybe — just maybe — you’ll gamely follow me down the wondrous rabbit hole of Japanese and Korean cozy books. Whatever you decide, I hope you find something that gives you that yummy cozy feeling.
Yeonnam-Dong’s Smiley Laundromat by Kim Jiyun
A laundromat seems an unexpected setting for a cozy book, but you’ll be wishing you could smell the signature scent of this one before you’ve finished the first chapter. I mean, a laundromat with a coffee station and a bookshelf? Yes, please! And that mysterious green diary on the table? Yup, it’s the key to the characters’ struggles. As each of the characters ends up unexpectedly in this special laundromat, they discover the diary and the things other customers have written in it. What starts on the page quickly makes its way into their real lives in impactful ways. The larger mystery of the diary itself unfolds across the individual characters’ stories in a rewarding way. Pick this one up — you won’t regret it!
The Restaurant of Lost Recipes by Hisashi Kashiwai
This second book in the Kamogawa Food Detectives series was released last fall (with the third book, The Menu of Happiness, due out this coming fall). Like the first book, Nagare and his daughter Koishi are food detectives who help clients reconstruct their most memorable meals. Some clients are looking for healing, others are mired in regret, and still others have different motives — but all of them are seeking a meal from their past which they haven’t been able to recreate. Exactly what those meals will give to the characters depends on who they are, and on how Nagare and Koishi prepare the meal. Regardless of the outcome, the result is a constant: these books are thought-provoking and will leave you hungry for more.
The Rainfall Market by You Yeong-Gwang
What a fascinating premise: a market you can enter (if you earn a ticket) on the first day of the rainy season, but must leave before the last day if you wish to return to your life. Oh, but you’re in the market because you’re having a hard time and want to select a different life, and you get a cat to help you as you navigate the market. Hooked yet? Well, young Serin has had a tough life so far, and the letter she wrote was enough to earn her a special ticket to the Rainfall Market. As she considers the lives on offer and learns more about the dangers lurking within the market, readers are taken on a contemplative journey that’ll keep them on their toes.
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The Dallergut Dream Department Store by Lee Miye
This story is a near-complete departure from our world. Set in a land of dreams, it follows young Penny as she begins her new job at the titular department store. As customers wander into this special place only accessible while dreaming, Penny learns about the purpose and power of different kinds of dreams. She also has the opportunity to meet different dream designers, each of whom creates with a different demographic in mind. As you might imagine, these dream designers are a quirky bunch, which makes the book very fun to read, and the novel’s exploration of the relationship between dreams and reality is fascinating. (Bonus: the second book in this series, The Dallergut Dream-Making District, is due out this summer!)
We’ll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida
The title of this one isn’t a metaphor. As with many of the other books on this list, Ishida’s novel is essentially a story cycle. The lost characters in this novel each stumble across the Kokoro Clinic for the Soul, where Dr. Nikké and Chitose, the nurse, prescribe cats to help address their various issues. The cats aren’t magical — as a cat owner myself, I found them delightfully cat-like. They have their idiosyncrasies and do all the things real-life cats do, but their presence in their temporary owners’ lives is transformative. Whether it’s the cat itself or caring for and playing with it, the characters get what they need from their feline medicine.
Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum
The bookshop that lends its name to the book’s title is a refuge for misfits. The owner, Yeongju, strayed from the path society expected her to walk. Having recently divorced her husband and left her high-caliber career to become a bookseller, she’s just as lost as the customers who frequent her bookstore. But as she attempts to figure out her own life, she gradually assembles a vibrant community, including a passionate barista, a lonely knitter, an apathetic teenager, and a surprising writer.
The Lantern of Lost Memories by Sanaka Hiiragi
This book is, in a word, beautiful. It’s a little on the serious side for a cozy book, but it’s worth it. The premise is fascinating: Mr. Hirasaka’s photo studio is a gateway to the afterlife. He collects photos of each day of a person’s life so that he can help them assemble a lantern of their most memorable moments. He can also help them revisit a single especially meaningful day so they can take a new picture. In this way, he helps them transition from this life to whatever awaits beyond it. The three characters we meet in the course of this book are vastly different, and Hiiragi’s rendering of their lives and memories is deeply moving.
The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki
A cafe that only appears on the full moon and is run by talking cats? Sign me up. This story cycle is set in a mysterious, not-always-present coffee shop where select lost souls wander in and are able to have their astrological charts read by the cats. The astrology plays a very central role in the novel, which is simultaneously unusual and interesting. As each character is introduced, the reader learns about the challenges they’re facing and the circumstances that led them to the coffee shop. Along the way, their storylines begin overlapping in ways that I found deeply satisfying. Fair warning: the descriptions of yummy sweet treats are lovely, so keep a nice sugary something by your side as you read.