Still Born: Guadalupe Nettel

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I read Still Born in less than a day. It is perfect: deeply feminist, wise, funny and alive. Nettel is generous to each of her characters, and in prose that is crisp and light. I love this book.’ It is also a testament to female friendship. At one point Laura says, “There are beings without whom we simply cannot conceive ourselves in this world. Alina was one of these for me. If she disappeared, a part of me will go with her.” Despite their differing choices and opinions, these women stand by each other and the love between them is evident. “The more we love a person, the more fragile and insecure we feel because of them.” 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.

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

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. But Alina decides to carry the baby to term. Meanwhile Laura becomes increasingly involved with her neighbour and her little boy, both troubled after the death, in an accident, of the neighbour's abusive husband, and takes on a sort of motherhood role of her own. GN: In Mexico, 11 girls and women are murdered every day, many out of hatred. This is not just something that we just read about in newspapers, very often it’s a friend’s friend or sibling that has been murdered by her partner and many times these guys are not imprisoned or even put on trial. This impunity gives rise to more crimes and even to a normalisation of it.The book is for everyone — but the real gift is for young women - in their twenties and thirties - not pregnant…. Nettel, translated by Rosalind Harvey, devotes tight prose to the complicated structure of identity around being (or not being) a mother and explores the constant negotiating women must do in the process. It’s a subject that’s well-trodden, but it’s still consistently treated as a universal experience – Nettel approaches mothering with originality and oceans of empathy.’ From now on there would be an invisible rift between us: she approved of maternity has a desirable fate for women, whereas I had undergone surgery to avoid it.❞ Nettel is one of the leading lights in contemporary Latin American literature. ... I envy how naturally she makes use of language; her resistance to ornamentation and artifice; and the almost stoic fortitude with which she dispenses her profound and penetrating knowledge of human nature.’ I would like this novel to help readers realise that human diversity – especially that of children with neurological conditions and women of all kinds – is always beautiful and interesting and that there is no reason to fear or reject it.’

Guadalupe Nettel’s Searing New Novel Asks: What Makes a Guadalupe Nettel’s Searing New Novel Asks: What Makes a

Still Born is Nettel’s fourth novel, wonderfully translated by Rosalind Harvey and due for release on 22nd June with Fitzcarraldo Editions (A big thank-you to Clare at Fitzcarraldo Editions for the ARC). Alina and Laura are friends, after many attempts of trying with her husband Alina is finally pregnant, while Laura moves into a new flat. Inadvertently, even Laura thinks she not really equipped for motherhood, she forms a bond with the next door neighbour’s son. Meanwhile Alina, going through the trials of pregnancy, learns that her child will have a brain defect and may die upon birth, something which changes her perspective towards life and her relationship with both her husband and Laura (as to be expected). Alina does give birth, and a successful one but I don’t think it’s right to tell the outcome as the book goes into more interesting territories after. Shaffi, Sarah (14 March 2023). "International Booker prize announces longlist to celebrate 'ambition and panache' ". The Guardian.

In the beginning, my intention was to write the story of my friend and her little daughter, which I’ve found incredibly inspiring, both terrible and beautiful at the same time. 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.

Still Born eBook : Nettel, Guadalupe, Harvey, Rosalind

This highly original novel, in an excellent translation by Rosalind Harvey, pursues a range of ideas connected to children, who should have them and who should take care of them…There’s a dark undertow to Still Born that reminded me of Elena Ferrante’s novels.’ Nettel is one of the leading lights in contemporary Latin American literature.... I envy how naturally she makes use of language; her resistance to ornamentation and artifice; and the almost stoic fortitude with which she dispenses her profound and penetrating knowledge of human nature.’ Guadalupe Nettel (born 1973) is a Mexican writer. She has published four novels, including The Body Where I Was Born (2011) and After the Winter (2014). She won the Premio de Narrativa Breve Ribera del Duero and the Premio Herralde literary awards. She has been a contributor to Granta, The White Review, El País, The New York Times, La Repubblica and La Stampa. Her works have been translated to 17 languages. [4] She is the editor of the Revista de la Universidad de México, the oldest cultural magazine in Mexico. Nettel is known for her psychologically complex characters. Discuss the protagonist’s emotional journey and the ways in which she navigates her internal struggles in the novel.

Sono tracce che ricompongono le domande che ci facciamo da sempre e, forse, è tutta questione d’interpretazione. La novela está narrada desde el punto de vista de Laura, una joven profesionista mexicana, que ha estudiado en el extranjero, y que está segura de su decisión de no ser madre. Es a través de su mirada que conocemos la historia de Alina y de Doris, amigas que han decidido tener hijos, enfrentando situaciones sumamente complejas. Personalmente, creo que la narración en primera persona –y desde un único punto de vista – le restó mucha fuerza a la historia. Laura es una mujer privilegiada (por lo menos en lo económico y en el acceso a la educación que ha tenido) y como tal, en algunos momentos considero que “juzga” las decisiones de otras mujeres. Esta impresión hubiera sido fácilmente minimizada si hubiéramos conocido la historia desde el punto de vista de cada una de las protagonistas.

Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel, Rosalind Harvey | Waterstones

La maternidad es más compleja de cómo la vemos en las películas. Hay tantas cosas detrás que no conocemos ni entendemos. Y este libro me enseñó mucho sobre el deseo de ser madre y a su vez, el deseo de no serlo. Nettel is free. She has succeeded in creating an audacious narrative style all her own, a singular and fearless way of being in the world. An essential voice of the new Latin American literature.’Nettel is a prolific author and a regular contributor to both Spanish- and French-language magazines, including Letras Libres, Hoja por hoja, L'atelier du roman, and L'inconvénient. In 2006 she was voted one of thirty-nine most important Latin American writers under the age of thirty-nine at the Bogotá Hay Festival. 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.’