Informedor.mx (2021-01-19). "Premio Cálamo "Otra Mirada 2020: Guadalupe Nettel gana por "La hija única" ".

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? The writing is subtle, sharp, and beautifully rendered thanks to Rosalind Harvey’s smooth translation.’ 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.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, Guadalupe (2018). After the Winter. Translated by Harvey, Rosalind. Coffee House Press. ISBN 9781566895330. Guadalupe Nettel’s Still Born (translated by Rosalind Harvey, review copy courtesy of Fitzcarraldo Editions and Australian distributor Allen & Unwin) introduces us to Laura, a Mexican woman who has long decided that hers will be a life without children. After making the life-changing decision to have her tubes tied, her long-term relationship breaks down, leaving her to live alone. Once a globetrotter, she’s now happily working on her PhD thesis and catching up with friends, mostly those without kids. How long did it take to write Still Born, and what does your writing process look like? Do you type or write in longhand? Are there multiple drafts or sudden bursts of activity? Is the plot and structure intricately mapped out in advance? No mother knows how long her children will live. There is even an expression that says that children are merely loaned to us, and that the length of this loan can last from a few hours to several decades.

Bezoar And Other Unsettling Stories, translated by Suzanne Jill Levine, Seven Stories Press, 2020, ISBN 9781609809584

Who has not plunged headlong into an irreconcilable love affair knowing it has no future, and clinging to a glimmer of hope as flimsy as a blade of grass. Pourquoi durer est-il mieux que brûler ? wondered Roland Barthes, sceptically. Love and common sense are not always compatible. In general, one tends to choose intensity no matter how little time it lasts, and in spite of all that it puts at risk. 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.’

Sono tracce che ricompongono le domande che ci facciamo da sempre e, forse, è tutta questione d’interpretazione. As well as the greater possibility that her daughter would die soon, Alina had to confront another huge threat: that she would live for many years and she, Alina, would be obliged to care for her, not like someone caring for a child but like someone caring for a terminally ill person who must be fed, have their nappies changed, given medication. Someone who, despite being hopelessly ill, never quite slips away.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.’ 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. Sara and Cariad are joined by Sunday Times bestselling non-fiction author, award-winning novelist, podcaster and journalist Emma Gannon to discuss fertility, age, choice, pigeons, loud neighbours and clichés. Los recuerdos del porvenir by Elena Garro, because it allowed me to see that my country is indeed a magical place.

Por otra parte (y de nuevo, esto es subjetivo), me quedé con la impresión de que si bien se abordan situaciones muy complejas con respecto a la maternidad, en el fondo subyace una estela un tanto ¿rosa?, sobre cómo las mujeres la manejan. Por ejemplo, Laura siempre se ha negado a la maternidad y sin embargo, en algún momento se hace cargo del hijo de Doris; la maternidad de Alina, si bien anticipa un desenlace triste, al final ofrece un dejo optimista; y, Doris se toma un tiempo para ella antes de poder asumir la maternidad, pero, ¿es esto posible en la vida real pensando sobre todo en mujeres mexicanas? No lo sé, y me pongo a pensar al saber precisamente que en nuestro país todavía solo existe una única forma de ser madre.

Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel, translated by Rosalind Harvey

Still Bornis an astonishingly elegant, intelligent, affecting novel, which has stayed in my mind from the moment I began it to long after I finished. I felt a huge sense of relief that I had encountered a work of art about ambivalence in mothering which encompassed a true authentic range of emotions and curiosities – vanity, aggression, jealousy and selfishness – with sanguine acceptance, as well as the beautiful and difficult project of giving and sustaining love which marks all our lives, mothers or otherwise.’ 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?