'A luminous, magical coming-of-age novel'Marie Claire'Maybe everything that had happened to me and my family had nothing at all to do with the slowing.

It's possible, I guess. But I doubt it. I doubt it very much.' One Saturday morning the world wakes to discover that the rotation of the earth has begun to slow.

As birds fall from the sky and days grow longer, people start to flee - but there is nowhere on earth to escape to.

Julia is already coping with the disasters of everyday life. And then there's Seth: tall and quiet and always on his own; the skateboarding boy who knows all about disaster.

As the world faces a catastrophe, Julia and Seth are facing their very own unknown.