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. In Still Born, Guadalupe Nettel renders with great veracity life as it is encountered in the everyday, taking us to the heart of the only things that really matter: life, death and our relationships with others. All of these are contained in the experience of motherhood, which this novel explores and deepens.’ I gave this four on finishing but I've dropped it to three. This is a good book that primarily explores childhood and motherhood. Of the latter, particularly difficult motherhood, that of disabled/violent children. Nettel's prose is unassuming but powerful at times. I found using the pigeons and their nest as a thematic addition to the plot a little too... obvious? The two storylines were enough for me. I think her reflecting parenthood again in the birds on her roof was a little overkill, and didn't really add much. I had heard this was probably going to make it on the longlist and planned to read it before it dropped but didn't get around to it, but hey, it did show up after all as I heard it would, as did Time Shelter. Fitzcarraldo continue to dominate.

The voice of Laura, the narrator, is one with which I instantly bonded - the writing is clear and unflashy but also intimate and quietly enthralling. A wonderfully fluent translation too by Rosalind Harvey - just a shame that there was less of a sense of Mexico City than I expected: this book could have been transported to London, say, without having to change a thing. In many respects the novel is a gripping and powerful exploration of motherhood, and indeed of what it means to live. Stillbirth Collaborative Research Network Writing Group. Causes of death among stillbirths. JAMA. 2011;306(22):2459-2468. doi:10.1001/jama.2011.1823 Cuando empecé a leerlo me pareció que esta historia ya la había leído en FB, en esos miles de posteos que te llegan por cualquier red social donde hay una mamá o un papá contando la historia de sus hijitos recién nacidos con alguna enfermedad mortal y piden tu ayuda para pagar el tratamiento, o los estudios o la hospitalización. Claro que continué leyendo porque a todos nos interesan las historias de esos bebés extraños y ajenos donde el dolor no es nuestro pero nos hacen partícipes. Así es esta historia, la historia de Alina y su bebé Inés. This novel – taking on the knottiest questions about agency, motherhood, the precariousness of the body – exerts a magnetic force; the choices and fates of its characters feel as real as life.It’s not the kids that annoy me altogether. I might even find it entertaining, watching them play in the park or tearing each other apart over some toy in the sandpit. They are living examples of how we could be as humans if the rules of etiquette and civility did not exist. For years, I tried to convince my girlfriends that procreating was a hopeless mistake. I told them that children, no matter how sweet and loving they were in their best moments, would always represent a limit on their freedom, an economic burden, not to mention the physical and emotional cost they bring about: nine months of pregnancy, another six or more of breast-feeding, frequent sleepless nights during infancy, and then constant anxiety throughout their teenage years. ‘What’s more, society is designed so that it’s us, and not men, who take on the responsibility of caring for children, and this so often means forfeiting your career, your solo pursuits, your erotic side, and sometimes your relationship with your partner, too,’ I would tell them, vehemently. ‘Is it really worth it?’” Many demands weigh on mothers. They are always compared to an unattainable stereotype, one that has made women feel inadequate. Not to mention those who decide to remain childless, who are rarely represented in literature up to now. To me, Still Born is a novel which affirms female choices and which challenges patriarchal ideas of motherhood and maternal instinct. Problems with the umbilical cord: One example is, the cord can get knotted or squeezed, cutting off oxygen to the developing fetus. This tends to occur more toward the end of pregnancy.

Nelle pagine seguenti l’autrice, nei panni della madre, si lancia in una riflessione sull’evoluzione che fa cadere la mascella. A Guadalupe, fammi il favore, vai ritirare fuori il libro di scienze delle scuole medie! O perlomeno lascia perdere l’evoluzione. These women endure physical and emotional strain, cope with shaky marriages and medical nightmares, and their personal identities are suppressed when their maternal roles set in. But they find support in female friendship - other women who tacitly understand and lend a helping hand. The richly layered narrative sometimes also branch out into related topics ranging from rare genetic diseases to brood parasitism. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists; Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in collaboration with, Metz TD, Berry RS, Fretts RC, Reddy UM, Turrentine MA. Obstetric care consensus #10: management of stillbirth. (Replaces Practice Bulletin Number 102, March 2009). Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2020 Mar;222(3):B2-B20. doi:10.1016/j.ajog.2020.01.017Still 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).

I wondered what our world would be like if we were given a combination of letters, or images like Cloud over Lake or Ember in Fire, and were left to decide what gender to choose or invent for ourselves. And finally, I asked myself what happens when a child is born with an ambiguous sex, or with two, and, years later– once the doctors, with the parents’ consent, have amputated or closed off the rejected sex forever– this child refuses to accept the gender that was arbitrarily assigned to them? Maternal ambivalence is a key theme of Still Born and Nettel explores a range of nuanced perspectives and evolving emotions through her portrayal of the two women. Does this feel unusual, or even timely? If so, it begs the question - why has Still Born been written now? One other rather poignant scene is Laura coming to terms with her mother’s habits, of which she was embarrassed of. It just hammers in the point that rearing a child is not easy and mistakes will be made. On Alina’s side motherhood takes on an even new dimension, where trial and error has to happen , which makes her relationship with her child fraught. 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.Still Born is a moving, nuanced exploration of motherhood and the complexity of the maternal instinct… What follows is a complicated journey from pregnancy to new life, during which both Alina and Laura’s views on parenthood are put to the test as life throws complications at them that they could never have envisaged. All sides of the argument are handled with delicacy and insight, and aside from a recurring pigeon metaphor that feels a little too on-the nose, the writing is subtle, sharp, and beautifully rendered thanks to Rosalind Harvey’s smooth translation.’ Es bastante evidente que el libro gira en torno a la maternidad. Lo interesante es que toma en consideración la postura de tres mujeres de personalidad y situación totalmente diferentes entre sí. Por ejemplo, el de la narradora, una mujer que decide no ser madre y se liga las trompas, o el de su vecina, quien está transitando un momento complicado en cuanto a su relación con su hijo, o el de su mejor amiga, una mujer que luego de varios intentos y tratamientos, logra quedar embarazada. No todo es tan sencillo como parece, pues todo se va a ir complicando y nos vamos dando cuenta de las vertientes que van surgiendo en sus vidas.

It’s intricately detailed, deeply felt, compelling and ultimately surprising portraits of young women….so realistic, that their stories become ours. I love a good short story. This was one of them. Cleverly balanced throughout the story grabs you from the start, keeps you rolling nicely and gives you an ending to be satisfied with. Nettel interweaves the two character’s experiences effortlessly: deftly contrasting the sheer heartbreak of Alina and the impossibility of losing a child, with the amiability of Laura’s newfound relationship with neighbour and boy.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. Deeply intelligent, Still Bornis 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.’ Storie di madri e non madri ma soprattutto storia di donne e di un reciproco riconoscimento anche di stati d’essere che spesso esistono senza avere un nome proprio. The title, Still Born, is of more significance than is initially read. As the author writes in the novel, ‘…We have the children that we have, not the ones we imagined we’d have, or the ones we’d have liked, and they’re the ones we end up having to contend with.’ (Pg. 189). Discuss this quote in relation to the title and the author’s intent behind both. Associate publisher Tamara Sampey-Jawad has acquired world English rights to the novel from Andrea Montejo at Indent Literary Agency. UK publication is scheduled for June 2022. North American rights were sold to Grace McNamee at Bloomsbury US, to be published inearly 2023.