When her husband Amir abruptly leaves home, film editor Lucinda is left angry and puzzled. Where has Amir gone, and why? In the months before he left, Amir seemed troubled and preoccupied and their marriage had become strained and tense. Now Lucinda worries that his departure could be her fault. Soon afterwards, Lucinda is brutally assaulted in a knife attack, which throws her even more off balance.
Searching for composure, she finds a distraction in assisting an older friend, Austrian film-maker Thomas, with a documentary he is making about an old mission station which is allegedly haunted. But the experience becomes an unnerving one for Lucinda who finds Thomas’s growing obsession with the story behind his film worrying. As tensions build, so does the underlying mood of constant menace, until Lucinda is confronted with a disturbing revelation.
The Cutting Room is a thoughtful and provocative novel of loss and loneliness, longing and guilt, and the different ways in which people can be haunted.
‘Enthralling, spooky and glinting …‘– Henrietta Rose-Innes
‘Lucinda Blankenberg stands at the centre of Mary Watson’s new novel with all the uncanny feeling, domestic disturbance, and exquisite perception that you could have hoped for from the author of Moss.’ – Imraan Coovadia
About the author
Mary Watson (born 1975 in Cape Town) is a South African author who won the Caine Prize in 2006 for her short story “Jungfrau”. Watson is the author of Moss, a collection of short stories published in 2004. Watson completed her masters degree in creative writing under André Brink at the University of Cape Town. “Jungfrau” originated as part of this 2001 masters thesis. After receiving a second masters degree at the University of Bristol in 2003, she returned to Cape Town to teach film studies while pursuing a PhD. Mary has lived in Galway, Ireland, since 2008.