Still Born explores those aspects of motherhood that have often gone untold in uncompromising writing that feels throughout as though it’s being narrated in confidence to a close friend. Guadalupe Nettel: "La ceguera determina mucho lo que escribo" ". Diario Correo (in Spanish). 26 June 2014. Archived from the original on 24 January 2021 . Retrieved 24 January 2021. 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? How does it feel to be shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2023, and what would winning mean to you? Laura herself spends much of her time helping Alina and becoming a surrogate mother for Nicolás, whose actual mother, Doris, is housebound (often bedbound) through bereavement grief and trauma. She eventually confesses to Laura her struggle to raise her son alone:

Rosalind Harvey is a literary translator and educator from Bristol, now based in Coventry in the West Midlands, UK.

Still Born

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. GN: I think it’s impossible for your biography not to permeate your fiction . I chose Laura as the narrator because I didn’t want to speak about myself in the book. Laura is different from me in many aspects: she’s more extreme, more radical and she has decided not to have children. But I also share some things with her: she’s a scholar, which, in a way, is similar to being a writer, she has a complicated relationship with her own mother and she is interested in Buddhism … Part of my story also permeates the story of Doris and Nicolás. I’m not a widow, I’m more like a divorced woman who restarted her life, but I know what it is like to live in a violent relationship with someone with whom you have children. I know the terror in which a woman like that can live, and how long it takes to heal after. Ana Marcos (March 21, 2013). "La escritora mexicana Guadalupe Nettel, premio de relato Ribera del Duero 2013". El Pais . Retrieved December 7, 2014. Nelle pagine seguenti l’autrice, nei panni della madre, si lancia in una riflessione sull’evoluzione che fa cadere la mascella. A Guadalupe, fammi il favore, vai ritirare fuori il libro di scienze delle scuole medie! O perlomeno lascia perdere l’evoluzione.

Cuando empecé a leerlo me pareció que esta historia ya la había leído en FB, en esos miles de posteos que te llegan por cualquier red social donde hay una mamá o un papá contando la historia de sus hijitos recién nacidos con alguna enfermedad mortal y piden tu ayuda para pagar el tratamiento, o los estudios o la hospitalización. Claro que continué leyendo porque a todos nos interesan las historias de esos bebés extraños y ajenos donde el dolor no es nuestro pero nos hacen partícipes. Así es esta historia, la historia de Alina y su bebé Inés.

Es bastante evidente que el libro gira en torno a la maternidad. Lo interesante es que toma en consideración la postura de tres mujeres de personalidad y situación totalmente diferentes entre sí. Por ejemplo, el de la narradora, una mujer que decide no ser madre y se liga las trompas, o el de su vecina, quien está transitando un momento complicado en cuanto a su relación con su hijo, o el de su mejor amiga, una mujer que luego de varios intentos y tratamientos, logra quedar embarazada. No todo es tan sencillo como parece, pues todo se va a ir complicando y nos vamos dando cuenta de las vertientes que van surgiendo en sus vidas. More than journalism or anthropological studies, it allows us to connect beyond ideologies, and to enter into a space of intimacy with people from other nations. It makes us share their fears, their hopes, and their life experiences. Deeply intelligent, Still Born is a propulsive novel with a depth of feeling so woven into the language that it never feels worn or applied. The denatured quality of the tone means the ideas of the book – the suspicion of the body as having incompatible desires from the mind; the impulses versus the aversions to child-having; the complexities of the mother-child dynamic – all just absolutely sing. I loved it.’

Un genitore si nutre di piccole e grandi ricompense emotive ed ogni giorno si rigioca tutto e come un lancio di dadi. There is no word, however, for a parent who loses their child. Unlike previous centuries in which child mortality was very high, it’s not normal for this to occur in our time. It is something so feared, so unacceptable, that we have chosen not to name it’. When Laura moves into her apartment, she comes across a pigeon nest in her balcony. Throughout the novel the progress of the pigeons family mirrors the events happening in the book: nesting, birth acceptance, tragedy, disappearance, return. I thought this was f

Reviews

Uno de mis propósitos de lectura para 2021 ha sido leer más literatura mexicana y, a mitad de año, reconozco que no lo estoy haciendo tan bien. Sin embargo, sabiendo que tengo seis meses más para lograrlo, decidí enmendarme y es así como me encontré con La hija única de Guadalupe Nettel, una novela con excelentes críticas. Esta novela es la historia de tres mujeres que viven la maternidad de formas distintas, cada una con sus retos, miedos, tristezas y alegrías: Laura es una mujer moderna, convencida que jamás desea ser madre; Alina, su amiga, en su primera juventud compartía esas ideas pero luego decide tener un hijo y enfrentar un embarazo complicado; y Doris, vecina de Alina que sucumbe ante el temor de educar a un hijo y no saber cómo.

Una lettura che sollecita in me quelle domande scomode perché esiliate in quell'angolo oscuro che appartiene ad ogni genitore, fatto di mille paure di perdita e di inadeguatezza. University of Glasgow and University of Manchester provide funding as members of The Conversation UK.The set-up had promise: a woman so determined not to be a mother that she has her tubes tied, and her friend who decides to have children after all, but whose experience of motherhood becomes extremely difficult. The narrative follows the two storylines. The novel confronts an array of delicate themes concerning motherhood: the pressures, burdens and expectations and their perpetual impacts, in addition to the complications caused in relationships post-birth.