I understood the basics of the whole time zones, but I think the terminology was little confusing and could have been a bit clearer overall.

Sora has dual-heritage (her mother was Japanese, her father is Canadian,) because of this, other Japanese people consider her a foreigner, and she is often asked if she can speak Japanese. Inspired by the fate of Penelope’s maids in Homer’s The Odyssey, this is a lavish epic of power, vengeance, love and fate. I love the cover of this book, it caught my eye instantly and as soon as I read the blurb I wanted to jump right in.The blurb for the book mentioned that this would be a perfect book for fans of Studio Ghibli and I couldn’t agree more. While it may not have been my cup of tea, I can appreciate that it could be much more interesting to those who enjoy contemporary and queer romantic novels, as well as those who find the time zone change concept to be interesting. Emotions and loss transcend time, and this young girl only sees both as being beyond anyone's control. Then, it fast forwards to her graduation, where she's still suffering under the loss of her mother (years later), but considering the various time pockets, which have formed, her attitude is understandable.

There’s a feeling this story gives you that is impossible to explain, and I can already tell I’m doing this wrong. Instead, I found an incredible, emotive, YA novel that explored parental loss, identity, belonging, isolation, ecology, the fracturing of time, and a complicated parental relationship dealing with memory loss and acting as a carer. This connection within a state of disconnect would be an interesting theme to explore with more mature readers. It feels like a mix of soft sci-fi, magic realism, and Japanese mythology (some of it new to me), and it is a slower paced story with descriptive prose, focusing more on Sora’s feelings and longings of her family, growing up a hafu (half Japanese) in Japan, romantic feelings (she’s bi), and what time actually is. Some side notes: the book is written in British English (was published first with a UK publisher) and has a British narrator (Susan Momoko-Hingley) that does a good job, however, Sora isn’t British, so it was a little jarring and had to remind myself a few times while listening, so it was a minor distraction.It was when Sora and Maya started looking for Sora's dad that I got so invested, and i honestly believe the author should have started earlier with this arc. Every moment with her is a tug of war, and it’s hard to tell if it’s because she is Canadian and Japanese and the cultures are warring within her or if that’s just who she is. One is a dystopian story about earthquakes in Japan that, surprisingly, moved not only ground, but time itself.

Catfish Rolling’, took inspiration from the tragedy of ‘The Great Japan Earthquake’ that had befallen Japan in 2011 as well as this Japan legendary myth. I had many expectations for this title after reading the enchanting description about catfish that cause the land to rise and fall beneath the islands of Japan. Another element of this book I loved a lot, is that even if it’s often not easy for Sora to have 2 nationalities, it is so enriching too. Kumagai is one to watch, with such a powerfully crafted and original debut novel, I wait in anticipation for her next work to be published!Will Sora’s scientist father find the answer to what really happens in the ‘zones’ before it’s too late? Sora seeks her mother, who went missing during the Shake, hoping to find her trapped in a different time-zone somewhere.

I personally could imagine especially the last part of Sora’s personal adventure transformed into a Ghibli’s animation vividly.Catfish Rolling takes many contradictory stories and ideas and seamlessly weaves them into a single tale. At the heart of the story is Sora, dealing with her life after graduating high school, with her relationship with her father growing more distant in the years since her mother was lost in the shake. Catfish Rolling reminded me a bit of Mike Chen's books, mostly his first, Here and Now and Then, which also dealt with time. Photograph: Marcelo Guerra/Alamy View image in fullscreen Clara Kumagai’s Catfish Rolling: ‘a rich backdrop of Japanese folklore and magical realism’. Since losing her mother to the devastation, Sora has felt aimless and alone and when her grief-stricken father goes missing, she follows him into uncharted spaces and unknown dangers.