Still Born: Guadalupe Nettel

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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. 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? 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. GN: I believe that for years no one talked about this because people knew that if we had this debate, if the moral and social dimensions of maternity were questioned and arguments against maternity were heeded to as well as the unfair ways in which nurturing can unfold, many women would have chosen not to reproduce, as is the case in many countries nowadays. It is far more difficult to control a childless woman.

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).

Still Born

If you had to choose three works of fiction that have inspired your career the most, what would they be and why? 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. Here Laura again experiences the downsides of having kids, but for the first time she also sees the positives as she becomes closer to Nicolás and Doris, unable to draw a line between herself and her neighbours as she would have done in the past. Nettel is also adept in illustrating those fragments of beauty that arise from appalling situations, such as strength in adversity, the beauty of unexpected love and the tenacity of human emotion.

Sono tracce che ricompongono le domande che ci facciamo da sempre e, forse, è tutta questione d’interpretazione. Asimismo, el estilo narrativo es una arma de doble filo: como ya mencioné, es una novela que se lee rápido y mantiene la atención del lector pero, al mismo tiempo, el lenguaje me pareció un tanto simplón y en momentos, artificial. 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.’

Reviews

Una cosa è sicura: ogni figlio è palesemente una tempesta di emozioni e bisogna combattere il tabù che ci vieta di nominare l’odio e la delusione ma quello che molti non colgono è l’insegnamento che c’è dietro ad ogni figlio. 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.