Review of the Day: The Cut Line by Carolina Pihelgas

In the Poetics, Aristotle said a story (at least a tragedy) has a sequence of events or plot with a beginning, middle and end and that the purpose of the story is not just entertainment but KATHARSIS or purging the audience of pity and fear. Caroline Pihelgas’ short novel The Cut Line does not have much of a plot, but the book definitely has elements that could be described as KATHARSIS. 

Pihelgas has published several books in her native Estonia; The Cut Line is her first book to be translated into English. This book is a short first person narrated book very much focused on the interior life of an Estonian woman named Liine who has recently broken up with her boyfriend of many years and moved from Tartu, the capital of Estonia to a remote cabin very close to the Russian border. Other than this move to a cabin, there is not much of a plot to speak of.

As I understand, Pihelgas’ book has three themes: trauma and moving on after a bad relationship, nature and its healing power, and concern about climate change. At least in my opinion, the material about climate change was the weakest part of the book.

It is with the first theme or trauma and attempting to heal after enduring a bad relationship where the title comes. The knife functions as a metaphor repeated several times throughout the story:

“My hands are empty, but I dream of a knife to cut through the thin veil of indifference” (location 315).

These knives don’t scare me anymore. They’re useless. They can just be twirled around and thrown, so that old men who want to decide over young women and their bodies lose their power of speech, and young men who expect women to be obedient and silent go blind” (location 952).

“I might lean a little in one direction and then the other, but the cut line will allow me a little space. A few days, a week or a month to get myself together. And then with a quick strong tug—rip!” (location 1148).

A second theme of the book is nature and its power to inspire and sometimes heal.

“At night I walk to the edge of the forest. The sky’s still glowing the color of sunset, but the forest’s already almost dark. The mosquitoes whine. This is their favorite time of day. The shadows of the trees are long and a little lonely. I want to shake off a day full of words and meanings” (location 283).

“The wind really picks up by the afternoon, blowing like crazy. It’s as if it wants to sweep everything out of its way. Twigs fall from the trees and the plants twist as if dancing. But it’s not a joyful dance; it’s a surrender to the wind’s fury, as if it spoke with your voice and was giving an order: Dance! And you have to dance out of fear” (location 842).

At least in my opinion, a book that is labeled literary fiction needs well crafted sentences worth pausing over. Here is one:

“The days have begun to pass quickly. Time that once stretched out sweetly like endless pink chewing-gum has changed and is starting to pulsate faster” (location 708).

“I feel like a quick dopamine boost, so I quickly post a couple of Insta stories about the flowers in the garden and the evening light and the big oak in front of the house. The hearts start coming, plus a couple of comments. I’d like something more. I’d like to feel that I exist” (location 456).

Thanks to the publisher for providing a copy of this book via Net Galley. All opinions are my own.

epub. 142 pgs. Scheduled for publication 3 February 2026. Finished 30 August 2025.