An Arbitrary Line

Sarah Cave

​

An Arbitrary Line is an eschatological survival guide that should not be followed. Is Slava’s island the last resting place of the tabernacle? Fragments of memory and experience merge in this collection leaving little distinction between body and landscape, human and non-human, Slava and non-Slava. As the world ends, Slava-bird begins.

​

An Arbitrary Line takes us into a rare spiritual struggle, at once circumspect and innocent, in dialogue with its own contradiction like all properly tested faith; the 'reasonable sacrifice' of the hermetic life which never sacrifices reason itself. Within the images and swerves of its deceptively concise phrasing, its seeming anachronisms and Absurdist flourishes we find a consciousness which is timeless, prayerful and fully human. Also it's funny. Do you have any idea how difficult it is making material like this funny without losing its soul, its focus and ultimate deep seriousness? It's really difficult. A jaw-dropping first collection from a talent I hope to be reading for many years.
– Luke Kennard