Synopsis:

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.

Sora hates the catfish whose rolling caused an earthquake so powerful it cracked time itself. It destroyed her home and took her mother. Now Sora and her scientist father live close to the zones – the wild and abandoned places where time runs faster or slower than normal. Sora is sensitive to the shifts, and her father recruits her help in exploring these liminal spaces.

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…

Review:

When I first read the synopsis for this book I honestly didn’t really know what to expect from it, but it really intrigued me.
The story goes that underneath Japan lies a catfish, and when it rolls it causes earthquakes. One such earthquake happened when our MC Sora was younger and it was so powerful that time shifted. Now, Japan is split into zones where time moves faster or slower, or remains normal.

I was expecting to read a story of discovery and science, to follow Sora and her father as they investigate the zones and figure out the secrets of time. What I read instead was a touching tale exploring grief and how it causes us to cling to time in different ways.
I know the feeling of losing time from grief, realising that someone you loved has been gone for much longer than you want to admit or sometimes forgetting entirely that they are no longer here and Kumagi captured this well.

Sora as a character is interesting too, I never loved her but at the same time it was hard to dislike her. She is a teenager, and along with the usual teenager stuff she is unmoored. Torn between two home countries, losing family and not knowing what to do or how to help causes her to say and do things that make you want to shake her and then hug her.

This is a slower paced book, it’s not flashy and it’s not grand in scale. But it is beautifully written and the concepts are explored in a unique way. It’s complex but also contained and was a wonderful read wrapped up in a very pretty cover.