Catfish Rolling by Clara Kumagai

 This tells the story of Sora, who lost her mother and other family in an earthquake - when the catfish rolled. According to legend, earthquakes are caused when the giant catfish sleeping under the islands of Japan wakes and rolls. This time the quake caused some very disturbing fractures in time; in some areas it moves slower and in others faster. Everyone caught in the different time zones disappeared. Sora and her father are desperate to find out more about the zones and what happened to Sora’s mother. However, frequent exposure to the different time zones has affected her father and she fears losing him too. I loved the magic realism of this story and the weaving together of myth and legend with hard headed science. The grief felt by Sora and her father was very vividly displayed and I thought that the other relationships were well portrayed.

This book would certainly appeal to fans of Studio Ghibli and I’m hoping to entice a few manga fans into reading this!

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