Still Born: Guadalupe Nettel

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When interviewed by The Booker Prizes, Nettel detailed how Still Born was based on the story of a friend and her daughter: ‘Every day, children are born with neurological conditions that set them apart from others. Their families often take these situations as misfortunes that will end forever the life they had and turn it into hell. I wanted to show, through the story of this friend of mine, that it is possible to transform this painful experience into a meaningful one.’ Do you think the author succeeded here? Did you find beauty in Alina’s experience when her daughter Inés was born with micro lissencephaly? Did it feel true to life? This is a book which explores maternity and motherhood along a whole spectrum, from the woman who doesn't want motherhood but who still finds herself drawn to the child of a troubled neighbour, to the woman who changes her mind and gets pregnant only to be faced with far more than she ever imagined. It's one of the most nuanced treatments I've read of what has become an increasingly contentious topic and Nettel avoids simplistic positions for a variety of grey areas - and it's this nuance and the avoidance of uncomplicated attitudes and stances that made this such involving reading. Nettel, Guadalupe (2018). After the Winter. Translated by Harvey, Rosalind. Coffee House Press. ISBN 9781566895330.

Still Born – Pages of Hackney Still Born – Pages of Hackney

RF: So much that feminists have fought for historically is at risk, most notably our bodily autonomy and our reproductive rights. Was Still Born written in response to the current climate? Three woman who join together to rent a large space along the beach in Los Angeles for their stores— Beautifully insightful and timely, Still Born is the story of 2 career-driven, adventurous friends in their mid-30s, living in Mexico City. Laura chooses to be sterilised while Alina is desperate to become pregnant with her husband. Soon, both women find themselves in unexpectedly complex motherhood-dilemmas. The novel asks challenging questions about care for terminally ill children and substitute motherhood. Laura and Alina’s bond is a constant core. At one point the prospect of the death of a child is described as “so unacceptable that we have chosen not to name it”.

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Laura, who is working on a thesis, forms an unexpected bond with a troubled neighbourhood household comprising a woman and her young son. The boy is struggling with an aggressive temper directed at his mother after the death of his father. Her strong ideas regarding children and motherhood are put to question when she starts understanding the depth, love and bond of this union. What follows is Pascal’s journey to himself. He travels the earth looking for his biological father and grapples with questions about his own purpose – a journey that closely mirrors that of Jesus in the New Testament. I loved this, I don’t think I have connected with a book as much as this in a long time. Heart-breaking, so much real emotion, and completely thought-provoking that I am still thinking about this book and the questions it has raised in me, about me, this is wonderfully written and beautiful book. It just covers so much like how even if you choose to become a mum, how much is free choice , when society instills and almost brainwashes reproduction, motherhood and how it’s natural, I also loved how it focuses on loss and society’s treatment of disability. I thought the ending was fantastic and symbolic of life itself, we don’t get closure and again that left me thinking

Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel | Goodreads

She is the author of the international award-winning novels The Body Where I Was Born (2011), After the Winter (2014, Herralde Novel Prize) and Still Born (2020). She has also written three collections of short stories, all published by Anagrama. Nettel’s work has been translated into more than 15 languages and has appeared in publications such as Granta, the White Review, El País, the New York Times, La Repubblica and La Stampa. She currently lives in Mexico City and is the director of the magazine Revista de la Universidad de México. Rather than focus explicitly on these episodes – the Korean War, US occupation and military dictatorships, for instance – Whale tells its grand national narrative on a smaller human scale. She has published three English-language works of fiction with Seven Stories Press: Natural Histories (2014), [8] The Body Where I was Born (2015)., [9] and Bezoar And Other Unsettling Stories (2020). The Body Where I Was Born was recognized on the Three Percent Best Translated Book Longlist and as a Neustadt International Prize for Literature Finalist.Solitude, the vulnerabilities of the body, unearthing the beautiful in the strange, outsiders who are unwilling to conform – these are some of [Nettel’s] interests ... [and she] carries some of these concerns into Still Born.... The prose, which appears in an elegant translation by Rosalind Harvey, retains a matter-of-factness, and in some places a synoptic quality ... that is rarely freighted with sadness or despair.’ Still Born follows Laura and Alina, long-time friends who both agree that they don’t want children. Until Alina changes her mind.

‘Still Born,’ by Guadalupe Nettel, complicates the idea of

Upon selecting Still Born as one of its best books of 2022, The Economist called the novel ‘unsentimental’. To what extent do you agree with this? Discuss how this can be true when dealing with such emotionally-charged subject matter? This is an elegant, thought-provoking take on motherhood - and the challenges of deciding whether or not to have a baby - the dilemma of wanting to be a mother but also be oneself and whether you can be both.

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It engages with questions of belief, philosophy and politics, and brings together a range of captivating characters from across the New World as Pascal grapples with his reputation as a new Messiah. I was unsure of what to expect, but I found Condé’s novel charming and full of heart. Nettel is a gorgeous writer who manages to completely immerse you in her world. They manage to take serious, heavy matters and turn them into a hopeful, inspiring novel. Several writers including Sheila Heti ( Motherhood) and Elena Ferrante ( The Lost Daughter) have written exceptionally well about motherhood. Usually, though, writers are overly sentimental and their narratives seem unreal. Thankfully, this book is honest and real with characters behaving in a rational and realistic manner. But this is more than a commentary on contemporary motherhood with Nettel bringing up questions of female choice and freedom in society and presenting women’s struggles both at an intimate level and within Mexican society. The novel has just two characters, the unnamed narrator and their time travelling friend Gustine. This sparsity reflects the aridity of a demented mind. Together, they create rooms for Alzheimer’s patients. Rooms in which a chunk of their familiar time and memory is preserved to provide them with shelter in a rapidly erasing memory world.

Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel | Goodreads Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel | Goodreads

Rosalind Harvey is a literary translator and educator from Bristol, now based in Coventry in the West Midlands, UK. A different version of the novel might have cast Alina as the narrator. Instead, Laura serves as witness and interpreter, establishing a buffer between the reader and the book’s harrowing events. The prose, which appears in an elegant translation by Rosalind Harvey, retains a matter-of-factness, and in some places a synoptic quality … that is rarely freighted with sadness or despair. One result is that the tumult of a doomed pregnancy and the insufficiencies of women’s healthcare recede. It’s friendship, not crisis, that emerges as the novel’s focal point.’ Geli, Carles (3 November 2014). "El "mundo neurótico" de Guadalupe Nettel gana el Herralde de Novela". El País (in Spanish) . Retrieved 26 July 2023.

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Still Born is a moving, nuanced exploration of motherhood and the complexity of the maternal instinct… What follows is a complicated journey from pregnancy to new life, during which both Alina and Laura’s views on parenthood are put to the test as life throws complications at them that they could never have envisaged. All sides of the argument are handled with delicacy and insight, and aside from a recurring pigeon metaphor that feels a little too on-the nose, the writing is subtle, sharp, and beautifully rendered thanks to Rosalind Harvey’s smooth translation.’