Having lived in Japan, shortly after the big quake of 2011, I could relate to many of the things in this story. I love the details of life, taking off shoes to go into the houses, bowing at the temple, giving mochi to the jizus. I was totally immersed in the place and thought it was beautifully captured in the text. But 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...

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.”— Traci Chee, author of Printz Honor Book We Are Not Free Sora and her father have been left to try to make sense of their new world, one that doesn’t include her mother. On an “objective reviewers basis”, I highly recommend this book. It’s a wonderfully written, thought provoking piece of speculative magical realism, that combines a post-apocalyptic-exploration mystery with an emotional character journey. You have to be okay with a slower pacing and not expect a flashy, plot heavy sci-fi novel, but if you surrender yourself the currents of this story, you’re in for an absolute treat. 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.

Time, mourning, and the magical slow swirl in this evocative novel about life after/with trauma. A life worth living. Marvelous! author of Shadow Life Hiromi Goto 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.

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. Catfish Rolling was a book with a fascinating and original premise, and I enjoyed the combination of science and Japanese myth. Sora was a well-presented character; however, some of the other characters in the story didn't feel as well fleshed out. The prose was easy reading, but the story posed a number of questions and scenarios to do with the fast and slow zones that were never fully answered by the end, which I found a little disappointing after so much build up. Even so, this remained an interesting and enjoyable read and offered something a bit different in terms of plot, so I am still giving it 4 stars. Recommended to those who like YA fantasy with an original twist. Time, mourning, and the magical slow swirl in this evocative novel about life after/with trauma. A life worth living. Marvelous!”— Hiromi Goto, author of Shadow Life A gorgeously written, thoughtful read that combines science, Japanese mythology and human emotion to great effect. Irish Examiner Alongside the fantastical plot elements is the main character, Sora, dealing with the grief from the loss of her mother, an ill and ageing father, and the tentative first steps of romance. Throughout the course of the book we get to know her better as she slowly lets her guard down, and her emotional arc is incredibly moving. The way all the different threads – Sora’s grief, the mythology, the fantastical – come together at the end is perfectly done.Emotions and loss transcend time, and this young girl only sees both as being beyond anyone's control. 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. 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. The concept is interesting and the book is really well written. Some of the characters are well developed, whereas others felt more two dimensional to me. I liked the idea, and whilst I wouldn't necessarily say that the execution fell flat for me - I did enjoy reading this, after all - I felt like there was a little too much repetition, as well as a lot of information being thrown at the reader. It was difficult at times to keep up, and to understand what had actually happened/what was happening within these time zones. So a confusing read, sometimes, but it had real heart, and I loved the focus on Japanese fables and mythology, and it was really interesting learning about the culture from someone biracial, like Sora. Catfish Rolling is a story about one of the most impossible concepts that w