Still Born: Guadalupe Nettel

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RF: The UN says that Latin America is the most lethal place for women outside of conflict zones, with femicide and violence against women reaching epidemic proportions in Mexico. Could you explain how this influenced the shape of this book? Unlike my mother’s generation, for whom it was abnormal not to have children, many women in my own age group chose to abstain. My friends, for instance, could be divided into two groups of equal size: those who considered relinquishing their freedom and sacrificing themselves for the sake of the species, and those who were prepared to accept the disgrace heaped on them by society and family as long as they could preserve their autonomy. Each one justified their position with arguments of substance. Naturally, I got along better with the second group, which included Alina. This same sensation animates Rosalind Harvey’s delicate but enthrallingly tense translation of Guadalupe Nettel’s fourth novel: an exploration of maternity, loss and refusal. 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.’ 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?

An extract from Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel, translated by

Set largely in the remote village of Pyeongdae, the dreamlike story of Whale is punctuated by satirical references to historical events that mark the seismic social shifts that transformed South Korea into a modern state in the 20th century. Geli, Carles (3 November 2014). "El "mundo neurótico" de Guadalupe Nettel gana el Herralde de Novela". El País (in Spanish) . Retrieved 26 July 2023.

Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel, translated by Rosalind Harvey

Maybe some of the metaphors are a little on the nose but somehow they work; it explores so many aspects of motherhood and caretaking, I'm sure I'll be thinking about it for a while. Still Born embraces both the joys of motherhood, and all the milked-up gunk, guilt-tripping and agonising. The decisions made are never straightforward. But this novel is vital in its emphasis on the right for people to make their own choices about their own bodies.’

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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? 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 University of Glasgow and University of Manchester provide funding as members of The Conversation UK. The Gospel According to the New World starts with the birth of a boy in an “overseas department”, “surrounded by water on all sides”. Pascal, a child of mixed heritage, is born and subsequently abandoned on Easter Sunday. Rumours immediately start spreading that he might be the son of God. Senior Lecturer, English and American Studies, & Director of the Centre for New Writing, University of ManchesterStill Bornis a startling novel about whatever it is that drives adults to take care of children, and all the many things that make that care painful and sometimes impossible. There is a quiet force to the poised and deliberate writing. The novel is a deep exploration of affection and vulnerability.’ The friendship at heart of the novel – between Alina and Laura – will resonate deeply. Nettel renders their bond in all its richness and complexity.

La hija única by Guadalupe Nettel | Goodreads La hija única by Guadalupe Nettel | Goodreads

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.’ Rosie Flanagan: To me, Still Born is a deeply feminist book, one that affirms female choice and challenges patriarchal ideas of motherhood and maternal instinct. Was this your intention? Rosalind Harvey is a literary translator and educator from Bristol, now based in Coventry in the West Midlands, UK. RF: Were you trying to break the stereotypical view of motherhood by presenting it as biological and non-biological, individual and collective? In Mexico, we have the brutal saying: “A tu mujer, como a tu escopeta, mantenla cargada y detrás de la puerta” which translates to: “Keep your women the way you keep your shotguns: loaded and behind the door.” I like to think that reading this book will make readers – whether male or female – question some of the practices we now take for granted as natural and unalterable, that women might broaden their perspectives on motherhood and be able to decide better what to do with their lives.Shaffi, Sarah (14 March 2023). "International Booker prize announces longlist to celebrate 'ambition and panache' ". The Guardian. Alina and Laura are old friends whose relationship is based on eschewing procreation as the be all and end all. It’s a perspective that gets increasingly complicated through pregnancy, birth, loss, a growing intimacy with the troubled son of a neighbour, unexpected resilience, the “birthing” process of writing a thesis and gradual drifting apart with a mother. Rowland, Amy (2015-07-02). " 'The Body Where I Was Born,' by Guadalupe Nettel". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2016-02-03. 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.

STILL BORN | Kirkus Reviews STILL BORN | Kirkus Reviews

Since 2017, she has directed the Magazine of the University of Mexico. [10] Bibliography [ edit ] Novels 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. Much of the language used by the lead character, Laura, is purposefully clinical and devoid of emotion. ‘This is why, whenever things started to get serious with a man, I would explain to him that with me he could never reproduce’. (Pg. 20). Did this strike you upon reading? What effect did it have on you and how does it contribute to the overall tone of the story? It is a philosophical exploration about memory and nostalgia, about forgetting and trying to hold on to our pasts while making sense of our present and future. Above all, it is about time – in its fragments and in its perpetuity. The narrative is so unembellished and laced with scathing humour that it has a jarring effect, further facilitated by uneven segments and breaks – much like our thoughts, some fleeting, some resilient. Author Maryse Condé and The Gospel According to the New World. Courtesy of the International Booker Prize

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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? A very interior book about motherhood, with a small cast of characters. It’s about the choices that you make, and the life that happens regardless of these. The relationships between the characters are real and messy but tender and heart-warming. 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.