Set in a world shattered by loss and haunted by memories, spirits, and folktale creatures, Catfish Rolling is a stirring exploration of the relationship between time and grief. Lovingly crafted and beautifully written, this tale will linger with you long after the story comes to an end. author of Printz Honor Book We Are Not Free Traci Chee

This story begins where not just the earth moves but time also shifts. It leaves Japan's islands in a state of flux with some fast time zones and some slow. However The Shake has captured many people in the zones and they have disappeared. Sora's mother has been lost so Sora and her father stay in Japan to look for her in the zones. Its inherently dangerous but neither care. With poignant observations, Kumagai tells the powerful story of a young woman navigating grief and her new normal. [H]eartbreaking and empowering...readers will be rewarded with a rich exploration of grief, society, and finding yourself." Booklist As someone very interested in Japanese mythology and culture (as well as the scientific implications of time rifts and the like), I was so excited after reading the synopsis, and it certainly didn't disappoint. A fascinating blend of magic realism and science fiction, dusted with some Japanese mythology, all combined to make a engrossing read. Excellent, evocative, and thoughtful, with genuine depth. #1 New York Times bestselling author Nicola YoonBut it's dangerous there – and as she strays further inside in search of her mother, she finds that time distorts, memories fracture and shadows, a glimmer of things not entirely human, linger. After Sora's father goes missing, she has no choice but to venture into uncharted spaces within the time zones to find him, her mother and perhaps even the catfish itself... The story, focussing on grief and loss, and the rebuilding of relationships, is closely bound up with the time zones that speed up or slow down things for the characters. Sora comes across at first as a typical, rather self centred teenager, but through the book she grows and is able to assume responsibility. Being a 'hafu', half Japanese and half Canadian, she is at first bewildered by Japanese beliefs, such as the giant catfish that is under the world, twisting and turning causing the earth shakes, but gradually she comes to accept the many different traditions that make up her country and society. Overall an incredibly unique and interesting concept that was executed well, I hope a lot of people will give this book a shot!

When it happened, it was springtime. The cherry blossoms looked like clouds — so pink and fluffy, they might rain sugar”. Seventeen-year-old Sora was still a child when the quake came. Immediately after, “It felt as though the world had stopped, and for a handful of heartbeats we all floated, suspended in space”. Seven years on, it’s as if the world has still stopped for Sora. She lost her Japanese mother in the Shake and now she and her Canadian scientist father are still lost, living close to the deserted wild zones where, since the Shake, time runs differently — faster, or slower, with their own zonal micro-seasons. Time runs as we expect it to. Time runs fast. Time runs slow. Some fast time runs faster than other fast time. Some slow time runs slower than other slow time. And the people in Sora’s world are only barely beginning to understand what it all means. This book has earned all the praise and success that I am sure will come, and it has definitely secured its place as a favourite for me. Finally, for younger readers aged 11-14, Friendship Never Ends by Alexandra Sheppard (Knights Of, May) follows four girls over one long summer apart: Sunita on holiday with her blended family; Dawn at drama summer school in London; Gifty with her grandparents in an isolated village; and May at home working in her parent’s Chinese takeaway. Sheppard brilliantly captures all the awkwardness and insecurities of being in your early teens in this hopeful, heart-filled paean to friendship and girlhood.

Reviews

Catfish Rolling is a story about one of the most impossible concepts that w A dazzling debut. Magic-realism blends with Japanese myth and legend in an original story about grief, memory, time and an earthquake that shook a nation. There's a catfish under the islands of Japan and when it rolls the land rises and falls. Simon James Green, author of the ‘timely’ Boy Like Me, photographed at home in south London. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian Japan is known for earthquakes, but in this book they go a step further. One particular earthquake was so strong it managed to shatter time. Japan gets split up into different "time zones", some are slow, some are fast and they're all different speeds. No one in the regular speed time zones quite knows what happened to those who where within what came to be the different speed zones. This book is so many things I love to read about, all meshed together in a way that felt like time had changed for me too. There was the urgency I associate with a compulsive read but this was at odds with an almost tranquil feeling, as though I was casually wandering around absorbing everything this world had to offer.

Sora is visiting her maternal grandfather in Japan an enormous earthquake happens that is so powerful it shakes time out of kilter. Japan is left, along with huge physical devastation and loss of life, with time anomalies, where time moves at different speeds in different places. These areas, called zones, are put off limits as the authorities are uncertain how they will affect people. Sora and her father explore these zones, her father as part of his work, Sora, because she is looking for her mother but these areas are not safe and when her father explores too far, Sora must go in to find him. Emotions and loss transcend time, and this young girl only sees both as being beyond anyone's control. It’s magical realism, it’s mythology, it’s philosophy, it’s sciency. It’s how the tremors and earthquakes we experience in our lives unbalance us. It’s figuring out who you are in a world that no longer makes sense to you. It’s the impact of grief on individuals and families over time.The second side is a story about loss. Grief you can't relieve live through, but can't ignore it, either. About losing yourself, the almost impossible journey to find your place as world around tries to exclude you from everywhere. Sora is not Japanese enough to be as her classmates, but not foreign enough to be treated in different conditions. Her dad slowly floats away from his mind, forgetting little things like what day it is or when something happen. It's extremely subtle, but every action in this book is both literal and metaphorical. Next, to ancient Greece and Sarah Underwood’s Lies We Sing to the Sea (Electric Monkey). In the kingdom of Ithaca, 12 girls must be hanged each spring to appease Poseidon. When Leto awakes from her death, the enigmatic Melantho reveals her destiny: to kill the last prince of Ithaca and destroy the curse. Inspired by the fate of Penelope’s maids in Homer’s The Odyssey, this is a lavish epic of power, vengeance, love and fate. A gorgeously written, thoughtful read that combines science, Japanese mythology and human emotion to great effect. Irish Examiner