This is a neat little novel, 142 pages long but the author writes vividly with not a spare or careless word so the reader understands what the main character is going through with total empathy. Walking the “cut line” with the past on one side and a possible future on the other. The question is: will she be able to choose the right side of the line?

Liine is escaping a toxic marriage and flees to the Estonian countryside to a tumble down house owned by an aunt, she and her family used to visit when she was young. It could be a beautiful retreat for her, but nearby, as a reminder of the outside world, is a NATO base where soldiers are preparing for war so the peace is occasionally shattered by the rattle of gun fire and the thump of explosions. However, here she throws herself into physical labour sorting the garden and nurturing the flowers and food crops she plants, settling into the rhythms of nature. Even nature is under strain as we see drought then storms disrupt normal rhythms. Danger seems to be everywhere for one reason or another.

The story is from Liine’s pov and we see her go through grief, anger, bitterness, self doubt. All the emotions which she has kept hidden deep inside her for most of her life and certainly the fourteen years of her marriage. Both husband and mother undermine her, make her feel worthless and always in the wrong. We learn about her sad neglected childhood where from the age of 8 she was responsible for her little sister.

I enjoyed this book (which I read on kindle) and found the central character well developed and very sympathetic. I found the ending quite enigmatic and opaque which made me think about the book more than I might have.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this advanced copy. This review is my honest opinion after a complete read of the novel.

A young woman finally leaves a toxic relationship and moves to the country to live in a family summerhouse. This sounds grander than it is! The place is not in the best of conditions and is very close to a military base. The threat of war looms heavily and military exercises seem to be a constant presence. Despite this the woman finds peace in the garden although her inner struggle continues. Her mother is another problem as she is very critical and undermining.
Fortunately she has the ability to work from home which means she can stay for the summer and work through her anxieties.
Well written and ultimately hopeful

The Cut Line by Carolina Pihelgas (out in February 2026) is the English translated version of Lõikejoon, originally published in Estonian in 2024. The story revolves around Liine, who has just broken out of fourteen-year toxic relationship with a man and moves to her family’s country cottage near Vōru. As she searches for meaning in her new circumstances, she engages with nature and hears from afar the gunshots and practices of a military base near the Russian border.

This contemporary literary work delves into Liine’s deep-seated depression and paranoia. She speaks to a specific audience—her ex—and tries to move on from the memory of his psychological abuse. She invests her time in nature, in gardening and in trying to control the pests in the orchard. Her landscape is pastoral and controlled, very much occupied by the villagers and herself and is not a wilderness. She has a dual relationship to nature; it calms her and keeps her mind occupied, but at the same time she is annoyed by insects and the upkeep of the orchard. Nevertheless, she uses it as a tool to rebuild her identity and self-confidence. She expresses, “I need to stay beneath the soil, in the ground, here is a safe remote place until I find the strength within me to sprout new shoots.” There is also an undisclosed war happening; Liine mentions hearing gunshots and airplanes from the nearby military base that increase in frequency throughout the book, representing her turbulent mental state. It is also mentioned that they are in wartime but that the village is not affected. Liine’s family in other places are also unaffected by this war, so it seems purely like a device used for illustrating metaphors. The cottage acts as an anchor for Liine during this time.

Liine has a very stressful relationship with her mother, who wants her to get back together with her abusive boyfriend because her age indicates that her time for starting a family is running out as no man will want her again. Her mother’s lack of awareness is like the gunshots in the background—a tempestuous intrusion into Liine’s search for wellbeing. Liine later discovers letters from her great-aunt Elvi who never married but which might indicate that she had multiple lovers and was quite an independent thinker, and these letters resonate with her and make her feel supported, although the letters are not chronological and often seem random.

This book narrates the inner life of Liine and the recovery of identity after a bad breakup. It’s written simply and sometimes lacks direction, which makes the story seem a bit uninteresting at times. Liine’s depression fluctuates and she finds solace in gardening and her friends, though she despairs of her mother and the nearby war. The Cut Line is the perfect book for readers of contemporary literary fiction who enjoy writers like Otessa Moshfegh, Olga Tokarczuk, or Elif Batufman, and who pursue literature that is simple and succinct.

This book follows a woman recently out of a toxic longterm relationship. She decides to spend time in a family cottage in the countryside, located near an active military base.

There's a lot going on in this book metaphorically and mentally, not so much plot wise. On one hand it's quiet and meditative about finding your identity after a large change in life. On the other hand it's punctuated with gunshots and climate change and death threats.

My favorite thing about this book was how I got lost in the lush descriptions and got surprised when a phone was mentioned, because the vibe of the book mostly isn't modern.

A solid meditative read, with important topics.

Filled with a sense of dread and foreboding, but also hope, this was a book that interweaved several themes together in a deft and compelling way.

At the beginning of summer, Liine has decamped from the city to her (one-time) family home in the countryside.

Virtually alone - save for a family visit and a friendly neighbour - and with occasional trips out for groceries and coffee shop visits - Liine processes her relationship with her ex-partner and contemplates her troubled relationship with her mother.

As a commentary on several issues we are all-too familiar with - difficult families, toxic relationships, climate change, war and conflict - this was a brief but compelling read.

Thanks to #NetGalley for the ARC

Grateful to NetGalley and World Editions for the ARC!

After leaving her toxic relationship with Tarmo, Liine spends the summer in the countryside in a house owned by her family where she reflects on her complicated relationship with her mother and what drove her to spend fourteen years in a toxic relationship. Liine used to spend time at the farmstead in the summer, but the village surrounding it has been partly taken over for military exercises and the peace of the countryside is frequently broken up by gunfire and by extreme weather, mirroring Liine's inner turmoil.

This novel is a poignant and well-written reflection on the ways in which our pasts may be in conflict with the lives and the future that we want for ourselves. Liine's internal monologue is incredibly relatable as she questions her self worth and her perceptions of her relationship with Tarmo. The prose is sparse and in all it is a short novel, but every word is intentional and deliberate. Liine adapts to life in the country and reclaims the house and the surrounding land from neglect, which is an apt and deeply moving metaphor for her healing and resilience.

The cut line is about the space between something ending and something else beginning.

This is primarily explored by following Liine who leaves a 14 year abusive relationship and goes to a remote family home on her own to literally give herself space to move on. The passages where she talks directly to her former partner are very powerful and the his reaction as well as those close to her are sadly all too believable.

The theme of this liminal space is also evoked as she is living close to a military base as Estonia prepares for a possible war with Russia, as natural events such as the changing of the seasons and how animals react to their changing environment and also something in between as she considers the impact of climate change.

Overall this is very short and an ultimately hopeful book.

The imagery was great, I’m unsure if the rest was lost from translation. I found it difficult to care about the story and history and ramblings.

The Cut Line is a poetic exploration of a woman’s summer following the end of a long-term abusive relationship. The prose is absolutely beautiful, and although the book is short we follow an extensive journey of self reflection through all the aspects of life and relationships.

The only reason I couldn’t rate this higher was the lack of speech marks, which I find makes text hard to read.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and World Editions for the advance copy of this book.

"The Cut Line" chronicles the story of a woman who recently left an abusive relationship, transforming in parallel with the summer home in which she seeks refuge doing physical labor. While the novel is atmospheric and lyrical, and the juxtaposing exploration of the main character Liine's past, present and future are interesting, I also found it to be long-rambling and dreary, making it difficult to finish the book at times.

Very poorly written with the sentiments told rather than shown. The sentences were patchy and had a performative nature to them. The beginning was interesting but it quickly became a random ramblings or a very uninteresting woman. My diary entries are better than this.

A lovely book following a woman leaving an abusive relationship and healing while staying at a family summer home.

You get to see her considering her past annd potential futures. I love how she grows and changes alongside the house and lands as she starts her new life.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This story follows Liine as she recovers from a breakup with her emotionally abusive ex-boyfriend, whom she had been dating for the past fourteen years. To escape the fallout caused by the breakup and to finally be alone, Liine moves back to her family's uninhabited rural home. There were many, many components of this story, all of which deserve note.

The Setting:
"The Cut Line" is set in the countryside near Russia, and therefore a war. The backdrop of the novel is the constant gunshots, helicopter sounds, and alarms that accompany the war. For Liine and the others in the village near her house, it is a question of when, not if, the frontlines of the war will envelop their homes.

In addition, there is also the threat of climate change. As Liine world to maintain the house and property, she notes the decline of species and the rise of drought. Both of these components create a constant state of worry, apprehension, and fear.

The Relationships:
The most notable of Liine's relationships is that with her ex-boyfriend. He continues to contact her with manipulation, guilt trips, and threats. Every one of his messages has a different tone, but all have the same purpose. Their breakup was the catalyst for Liine's move, but it wasn't the only reason.
She too has a fraught relationship with her mother, full of manipulation and guilt.

Despite the danger and uncertainty of her situation, Liine uses her time alone to reflect, grow, and heal.

In theory, this should have been an incredible story. However, the complex and drifting writing style, multiple problems, no chapters, and lack of quotation marks made it extraordinarily confusing and tedious. Although each problem (her ex, her relationship with her mother, the war, climate change) was important, the combination of all of them served only to confuse me and make it impossible for there to be much depth in regards to each specific problem.

At only 68 pages, this took me over a week to push through, and was utterly confusing the entire time. Although I felt like each individual aspect of the story had so much potential, the combination of all of them, plus the writing style, was altogether far too much.

This is a story of overcoming trauma and transformation through time, self-care and understanding.
The political and the personal inform each other, one becomes the metaphor for the other in this elegantly written book about a woman called Liine, who has to deal with trauma caused by her mother and her ex.

A book rich in themes, topics and emotion.

I did not like how short the novel was. I loved everything else. Instead of focusing on dubious interiority, Carolina Pihelgas related the character to her social context, placing her next to an expanding military base (with the war in Ukraine in the background), and to her environment, depicting the agricultural changed environment surrounding her outhouse. Moreover, the naturecultural context expanded to include the planetary. It even explicitly mentioned the Anthropocene alongside global warming. This is a welcome addition to literature dealing with the interiority of European white characters, as it tends to obscure the material conditions of their existence. I also loved the shout-out to those of us living in southeastern Europe. The author compared our 40-degree Celsius heat to whatever passes for summer heat in Estonia, even with global warming... As I look at the weather forecast for the next few days and whimper (it's going to be 37 degrees Celsius on Thursday).

Beautiful prose! Carolina Pihelgas is very talented. This was reflective and I found myself ready to read more from her! Super enjoyable.

There is a lot to chew on here. A reflection on a recently ended abusive relationship. How one can drift into intimate danger when loneliness and listlessness is larger than early red flags. Protagonist, Liine throws herself into gardening in an isolated house. Her relationship with the soil grows along with her understanding of self, of what lines she must draw around her.

By description alone, this book is right up my street. And Carolina Pihelgas’ prose is lovely in parts. She touches on big themes like climate change and war through the lens of this one woman recovering from years of violence.

These are all compelling and important subjects. And yet somehow, for me, the sum was not greater than its parts.

This is a slight book and still I felt like I was working through it for some time. In fact it took me more than two weeks to finish a book I would typically gobble up in two days.

This is a solid book, story and writing. I do think it will find it's English-language audience, but I’m afraid I just couldn’t connect with it.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an advance copy of the book in return for an honest review.

'The Cut Line' is beautiful, and harrowing, all at once. You can tell that this is a poet's novel: Pihelgas' words glide across the page, creating a slow release of horror, as Liine, the central character, reckons with the reverberations of abuse, and the increasing changes in the Estonian landscape. Most rewarding, are the dynamics between Liine, and nature: I particularly enjoyed 'The Cut Line''s depictions of the Estonian countryside.

Beautifully translated and beautifully written. I was initially surprised at how short this was, but having read it, I realised it was exactly the perfect length. Despite the subject matters tackled and the lingering sense of unease, I felt as though I was in the midst of an endless, comforting summer in that countryside, and the vivid imagery made me long for it. The reason for my rating is that I’m not sure if I would revisit this work or recommend it to others simply due to how closely I related to some of the uncomfortable things Liine went through. However, I did note down a ton of quotes and passages that I found beautiful or stuck with me and I’d like to keep in my memory.

The detail in this short read was tangible. The descriptions felt like the gardens and animals were jumping from the page. You could feel her emotions as you walked through them. I wanted to linger in each moment longer than they were written. A worthy read.