Cafe At 46 Old Street

by Hannah Cao

Sometimes all you really need is a place to call home.

Hanh arrives in London with nothing but her sketchbook and her journal. She is starry-eyed at the idea of starting a new life in the city of opportunities— where she is no longer forced to sit at Friday dinners with her father's new wife and kids, and where, on the down-side, she is no longer with her first love.

Winston has always been a little out-of-sync. As if to prove how disappointing he looks next to his Golden brother, he just dropped out of university and, on top of that, was dumped by his girlfriend over text. Living a life of dark espresso without the sugar, he is struggling to find a role in his own life.

Clementine is a quirky rarity, a splash of nosy and a cup of eccentric, destined to be the driving force of her parents' otherwise sleepy coffee shop — if she doesn't lose it to the looming competition threatening her eviction.

Alexander grew up unable to fit in, having moved from Italy to London with his overachieving mother at a young age and constantly changing schools. His quiet nature is a curtain to his fears, but his delightful tarts are a reflection of how others feel about him.

From the outside, their lives are simple: they’re a group of an overjoyed newbie, a strictly sober bartender, an exuberant coffee shop owner and a quiet baker trying to find their place in the world. But still waters run deep in the Cafe At 46 Old Street, so when reality comes catching up to them, threatening their routine and crumbling their lofty walls, their lives are changed in the matter of a year.
Will they find their way back home?

***
Trigger warnings below

Memory loss caused by alcoholism (mention of consumption, off-page), Hospitalisation, Anxiety, Divorce, Grief, Off-page death of a grandparent in a character‘s past, Homophobia (no slurs or attacks), Sexual content: off-page and vague, Bullying in a character’s past (no violence, no slurs)

Warnings will continue to be updated on my website as necessary – if there is anything you feel should be TWed or CWed, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Genres: Contemporary

Unknown Binding

About the author

Hannah Cao is a poet and novelist based in Germany. She is the author of poetry collections, a contemporary novel, and is working on mystery and dark academia projects.
Pulling inspiration from her personal adventures growing up between different cultures and homes, falling in love, battling mental health, and dealing with loss along the way, she now fuels her writing with topics of identity, belonging and the complexity of interpersonal relationships.

Reviews

[pearl · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

i have lots of very conflicting feelings even though i did think this was very comforting and a sweet book in general...i think the biggest problem i had was that this book lacked a lot of things for me. i wanted to see more of all the characters and i think having four povs in such a short book (it's around 300 pages i believe) didn't really give their individual storylines and development the amount of page time they deserved. like, judging from the summary, everyone has their own individual struggles, and then there's the different friendships in the found family and each of the mcs' struggles with their own family and the romances. it all felt a bit too spread out and as a result, while the characters did feel very real, i wasn't particularly invested in them. i felt as if i was watching their lives from the outside most of the time and didn't really know and understand them, even though i wanted to.

that being said there were many parts of this book i enjoyed - it felt very heartfelt and had a lot of nice scenes and touching lines that i liked. i just wish it was longer and we had more time with these characters because the snapshots of their lives and personalities that you catch really are wonderful. still recommend this to anyone in search of a calming read that's on the shorter side, and i'll be keeping an eye out for more of this author's work :)

[Nicola · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a digital ARC from the lovely author on the last properly sunny day & starting it on the balcony until the wind got too cold to bear already perfectly set the mood for the book:
It offered me so much warmth over the past few rainy autumn days & truly feels like the ideal light-hearted (despite the occasional heavy topic it may cover) autumn read!

I’m not a fan of spoilers in goodreads reviews so let me just say that all the characters are multidimensional & likeable & while they all differ from one another in terms of personality, none of them have been reduced to mere stereotypes which I find is, unfortunately, quite rare! Perhaps the book is just a few pages too short to fully develop so many characters down to every minor detail but there certainly weren’t any vital pieces to the puzzle missing for any of them nonetheless.

You can definitely tell that Hannah also writes poetry, be it through her prose that oftentimes serves as an utterly beautiful love letter to London or through the integrated poems, but neither ever feel out of place or pretentious. The way the POVs have been split up might not be for everyone but I, for one, love that sort of switch and think it’s been quite well executed too.

Definitely a very solid debut novel that could have easily gone on for a while longer for my liking, actually :’)

Very excited to see what else is in Hannah’s literary future 💙

[cossette · Rating 3 out of 5]

trigger warnings: death of a parent (mentioned), death of a grandparent, dementia, breakup, homophobia, alcoholism, hospitalization, medical talk, neglect, adoption, abandonment, grief, terminal illness

[eureka]

cafe at 46 old street is a beautiful story from start to finish and i loved every part of it.

i've always adored hannah cao's writing, so it was amazing to see the kind of style and voice that she used to tell this story. it was different and refreshing at the same time. my favourite thing about reading this book is how it made me feel like i was living life through the characters, experiencing their joy and troubles together with them because the story moved like photographs taken in different times and settings, giving it a nostalgic yet comforting feel.

the book contains some heavy themes (trigger warnings in the summary), but i have to say that hannah cao did those themes justice. nothing was romanticised or glorified, in my opinion, and i love the representations shown in this book and how they were told because things came full circle towards the end. it was perfect.

the only thing i wish this book had was more. more hanh, more winston, more clementine, more alex. even the side characters, mia and isiah, were lovely and had my heart, too. although, overall, this was such a nice and comforting read, and i'm grateful that i was able to experience it because now i've found another all-time favourite book that i can always come back to.

it's been an honour to be a part of hannah cao's street team for this book, and i'm excited about her future projects. but for now, i'll be loving the sleepy cafe at 46 old street and the stories it holds within. thank you, hannah cao and the publisher, for the arc!

[☆｡.:*maria ☆. ｡.:* · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5 ⭐
This was such a warm and comfortable reading!!!!! I truly loved how we got to see a bit of every single character and how, different but at the same time, so complementary, their personalities were 💛

[s · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars*

cafe at 46 old street is a comforting book, an ode and love letter to london. without doubt, this is an atmospheric read, with characters that easily insert themselves in your life. they have their flaws and their own respective struggles, but are a tight-knit, lovely community.

now here’s the thing. it was heartfelt, but I didn’t think it was enough. especially when it quoted a little life in the beginning, I was suspecting this book to be as poignant and moving. and it was moving, and a lot of quotes were deep and thought-provoking, but I felt something lacking. it wasn’t empathy, because I did like the characters. however, I didn’t fully love them, I liked the story but I wanted more. and what more exactly is, is hard to pinpoint. I finished this and felt a bit empty, not satisfied and fully happy with the outcome. the journey was a lovely one, but the destination felt indifferent to me.

[mali · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm absolute in awe with 'Cafe At 46 Old Street', I think I might be in love with this book. There's something truly magical about the way Hannah captures such a seemingly simple, "normal" storyline (or rather plural, storylines) and transforms it into something so moving, funny and quietly profound. If I could experience it again for the first time, I absolutely would.

Every one of the four characters felt so vivid and real, like people I might know, or wish I knew. The way Hannah writes their relationships is nothing short of enchanting. Their conversations, while often grounded in everyday life, carry a softness and poetry that caught me off guard in the best way possible. I think I fell a bit in love with each of them, but Winston and Hanh completely stole my heart. If there were ten more books about their lives, I'd read every single one without hesitation.

Alex too left a deep impression on me with his quiet, internal "struggle" that felt incredibly authentic and real. Queer representation like this matters and Hannah handles it with care, respect and nuance.

If I had one small wish, it would be to get to know Clem a little better, especially beyond her feelings for Winston. I would've loved to see more about the situation with her mother, as well as how her relationship with Brandon might further evolve. But then again that is kind of the beauty of endings, leaving some part of the story open. Leaving space for interpretation is kinda a part of the whimsical charm of stories like these.

Thank you, Hannah, for enriching my life with such a heartfelt and beautifully told story! :)

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a sweetly warming debut from Hannah that brought me a lot of comfort as I read it on an early spring sprint. There’s a really likeable, soft naïveté to the author’s voice that lends itself perfectly to all four characters, who bring depth and dimension, and there’s so much minuscule attention to detail that you can tell the author has breathed her own heart’s pieces and soul’s mists to this work.

Café at 48 Old Street reads like a romanticised scrapbook of a captured moment in London. It moves endearingly slowly, character-led from the very start, and we watch on as protagonists Hanh, Winston, Clementine and Alexander try to find their ways in the world. Like I said, the soft naïveté that runs throughout works really well in this coming-of-age story. It brought me back to my pre-Uni days of feeling prematurely nostalgic for my formative years, viewing big cities through rose-tinted lenses and of all the baggage it feels like you have. (Oh, sweet summer child…)

Overall, I enjoyed this debut. It’s charming and touching in its own way, and the characters were wonderfully explored, although I do think they could’ve had more punch and the friendships fleshed out. I love that the café is a character in itself, and the way the story explores friendships that unexpectedly spark from simple coincidences. I also think it could’ve done with a native English editor’s eye – an editor by trade myself, I noted a few parts that could’ve been elevated with a touch more tailoring.

[Gigi Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75-4 stars

this book was really cute!! i liked how the book seemed normal??? in a way??? there was no crazy plot line that made everything seem unrealistic. it was a book about 4 friends and what they had going on in their lives. and it just shows you that everyone’s got their own stuff that’s going on. not everyone is perfect, no matter how cheery they might seem on the outside. and it was a wholesome reminder that you aren’t any worth any less because of it

[Elliotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was lovely and warm, but I had an issue with the typos and the poor formatting. I think it needs to be polished a bit more on a lot of fronts. But the story itself is good. I related heavily to some of the characters, and found all of them compelling. I formed an attachment to them, watched them go through their lives as if I were watching my friends. I wish I could have followed them further into their lives, beyond the confines of the book.

[Dion Anja · Rating 5 out of 5]

a new comfort read! hannah's ca46os took me to places i'd never want to leave. the atmosphere was amazing, the prose hit all the right notes, the characters were like a family as they were like a family to each other. cannot wait to read more of hannah's work in the near future!

[Clemmie Joly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful debut.

Please note- I received an eARC of the book as part of the street team for this novel.

CA46OS is a wonderful debut novel promising great things to come from Hannah Cao in future.

Her characters are relatable, real, honest, and her love for them shines through. It almost feels like this is a prequel, and each of the main 4 could go on to feature in their own full length novel in future, but for now, they make up important parts of a touching love-letter to London.

Cao touches on a wealth and breadth of important and oft-unexplored topics in the novel - a promising young writer, these are themes I expect her to delve further into in future publications, as some things did not get the full development they deserved due to the limitations of the form.

An incredibly emotional and heartfelt debut, Cafe at 46 Old Street is a strong foray into the novel form, and carries with it a huge amount of promise and potential for future releases by this author.