Still Born
Mexico

Still Born

by Guadalupe Nettel

Motherhood Literary Fiction 2020

Summary

What makes someone a mother—and what happens when motherhood looks nothing like we imagined?

Laura has made a firm decision never to have children, even undergoing sterilisation to protect the life she has chosen. Her friend Alina, meanwhile, finds herself drawn towards motherhood. When Alina’s pregnancy takes an unexpected turn, both women are forced to confront the limits of love, independence, and their ideas about what it means to care for another person.

As their lives become intertwined with the lives of vulnerable children, the two women discover that love can be inseparable from fear, grief, and uncertainty. With remarkable tenderness and honesty, Guadalupe Nettel challenges the idealised image of maternal instinct, exploring the complicated emotions women are rarely encouraged to admit.

Intimate and quietly devastating, Still Born is a moving portrait of friendship, chosen family, and the many forms that caregiving can take. Shortlisted for the 2023 International Booker Prize, it asks whether love means protecting someone from suffering—or learning how to live alongside it.

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Country
Mexico
North America
About the author
Guadalupe Nettel
Guadalupe Nettel

Guadalupe Nettel is a Mexican novelist and short-story writer born in 1973. Raised between Mexico and France, she studied linguistics in Paris and developed a distinctive literary voice known for its psychological depth, understated humour, and exploration of the unsettling aspects of everyday life. Her novels include The Guest, The Body Where I Was Born, and After the Winter, which won the prestigious Herralde Novel Prize in 2014. Her work has been translated into numerous languages and published in international literary magazines, including Granta and The New York Times. Still Born, originally published in Spanish as La hija única in 2020, was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2023. Nettel lives in Mexico City, where she directs the Revista de la Universidad de México. Her writing frequently explores identity, vulnerability, and the complicated relationships between people and the worlds they inhabit.

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Details
Published
2020
Author
Guadalupe Nettel