Jim Ashilevi says understanding pain helps people live with it
Tuesday 3rd November 2026 on 12:45 in
Estonia
Writer and director Jim Ashilevi says people must find their own meaning in life and learn to live with pain. His novel The Human Costume, published this autumn, explores pain, friendship and self-understanding, ERR reports.
Ashilevi said on ERR’s Plekktrumm programme that having the book published by the Loomingu Raamatukogu literary series fulfilled a long-held dream. It has already reached a third print run, though he said he had not expected to know how many copies would be printed or whether people would read it. Those were not the reasons he wrote the book.
Unlike his earlier works, which used more poetic language and form, The Human Costume has a simpler, more documentary style. Ashilevi said he had to find a new way of telling the story, using language that would make its ideas clear rather than obscure them with excessive ornament.
The novel’s central character, Margus Karu, helped Ashilevi feel more open and free. At school, he had felt inept and unsure of his future, despite having creative interests and ambitions that did not seem to him like pursuits for an adult. Meeting Karu at university, he said, opened something in him that had previously been closed.
The two shared absurdist humour, optimism tinged with hopelessness, a desire to live and an accepting attitude towards each other. Ashilevi said writing the book also gave him a way to reflect on the nature of their friendship, why it mattered to him and how it changed his life.
He also said he would value for the rest of his life the friendships he formed with fellow students on Tallinn University’s audiovisual media programme. His shared interest in writing with classmate Sass Henno grew into a friendship, Ashilevi said, adding that Henno’s style brought to mind Chuck Palahniuk.
Ashilevi said Palahniuk’s Fight Club had earned its place in literary history. He noted that the term “snowflake” came from the book and was later adopted by some more extreme voices, a development Palahniuk had welcomed.