I really enjoyed Still Born. I was drawn to it after the International Booker list came out. I liked the writing about motherhood and decisions around having a child. The writing was intense but beautiful.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read the e-ARC of Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel, out August 8th!

Two women navigate the expectations and realities of motherhood and childlessness in this beautifully written and incredibly powerful novel.

I really enjoyed this one and I loved the exploration of themes surrounding motherhood.

I can easily see why Still Born is shortlisted for the International Booker Prize. This book was quite an emotional ride. My first book by Guadalupe Nettel and I'm really looking forward to reading more books by her.

We follow two friends Laura and Alina who are in their 30's and are facing the choice of motherhood. Laura becomes very attached to her 6 year old neighbor who she takes care of while his mother deals with her mental health. Alina becomes pregnant but finds out that her child carries a very rare genetic disorder.

I loved Nettel's style of writing. She did an amazing job making these women feel so real. I also loved how she tackled many issues of women and motherhood.

Thank you to the publisher for gifting me this e-arc. I'm looking forward to buying the physical copy!

Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel translated by Rosalind Harvey is an intense novel! It’s a short book but I had to read this one slowly due to the subject matter. Please look up the content before reading. This book is about two women, Laura and Alina, and their experiences with wanting kids and motherhood. Told from Laura’s perspective I appreciated the distance from Alina’s life since she had to reckon with some difficult decisions. I found this an especially apt read at my current stage in life.

What a gorgeous, heart-felt novel. I couldn't put it down. I'd read Nettel before, but this feels far and beyond like her best work to date. I have been recommending it like bonkers to everyone. Thank you so much to the publisher for the e-galley!

An absorbing and thought-provoking novel which skillfully addresses motherhood, the meaning of family, and Buddhist concepts such as transience and impermanence. In clear, uncluttered prose, it reads almost like a memoir. Narrated in the first person by Laura, a PhD student in her 30s who is completing her thesis, much of the novel concerns Laura’s friend Alina, who has, much to Laura’s distress, decided to become a mother. However, Inés, the child that comes to Alina and her husband is not the one they’d planned for. Due to a genetic defect, her brain is small and the cortex has not formed normally; she is severely disabled. The reader learns how the couple cope and how Laura, who has taken medical measures to ensure she never becomes pregnant, forms a bond with a traumatized woman and her young son, neighbours in her apartment building. She also develops a surprising attachment to a pair of pigeons who care for an egg which is not their own (and the hatchling that emerges).

A rich, interesting, and rewarding read. Recommended.

I know this book has been out in the UK for a little while now, but it’s set to come out here in August - which is why I was happy to be able to snag an ARC from Bloomsbury Publishing.

Really thorny sentiments in this one, making it a timely read. I haven’t come across neurodivergence and birth complications in my life and with those that have been close to me, which is why the topic and its real effects on individuals and families experiencing it were so poignant. Nettel did not shy away from sketching <i>all</i> of the feelings involved in the process, including the forbidden ones. Mothers wishing they had never had children, wanting them to go back to “where they came from”, or young women struggling with the idea of having children, informing those close to them that this “plan” may have to be thwarted. I am giving it 3 stars because, while I enjoyed these reflections, I thought that the exploration of the feelings remained relatively underdeveloped throughout the narrative. What’s more, the constant shuffling back and forth between our narrator and her best friend was jarring, the ultimate effect being that I ended up not really caring for either of them as much as I may have if there had been a more focused momentum. Still worth a read.

Thanks again to Bloomsbury for the ARC.

NO SPOILERS….

The psychological depth of ‘Still Born’ is powerfully resonant and meaningful.
We are taken on heartfelt, heartbreaking, and brave journey.
Nettel plucks away at our raw nerves — the writing is so smooth and keenly observed— I couldn’t pull away.
It’s intricately detailed, deeply felt, compelling and ultimately surprising portraits of young women….so realistic, that their stories become ours.

Laura doesn’t want to have children:
“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?’”

Adina does want to have children. She was having trouble conceiving. She was willing to start vitro fertilization.

Nettel takes a large canvas of issues — life - death - choices —unforeseen circumstances and unexpected turns - female solidarity - maternal regret -
friendships - and explores every facet of motherhood complexities.

The book is for everyone — but the real gift is for young women - in their twenties and thirties.

Paul and I have two daughters. Ages 41 and 36.
Neither have children-nor do they plan to have children.
People have often said to me …”oh, poor you…no grandchildren”.
Well….perhaps ‘not poor me’.

I’ve soo much respect and admiration for this book — it’s written with rigor and grace….
committed to honesty and exploration.
It’s radiant and pristine….calling for discussion.

This story is about the multi-faceted issue of maternity and the decisions women make around it. The story focuses around the experiences of two friends, one who chooses not to have children but ends nurturing a young boy and the other friend who has a child with disabilities. This story raises many questions about the expectations of women and motherhood. While there were many interesting aspects to the story, I found the narrative quite boring, as I reader I felt distant from the characters which was disengaging.

5/5 - Motherhood as choice, not expectation

In this beautifully written, moving novel, Nettel explores ideas related to motherhood and what makes a mother a mother. There is also a taste of feminist protest and a movement related to such, which complements the discourse throughout on the societal expectation of young women to procreate whether they wish to do so or not. Nettel does a fantastic job weaving several stories of several women and children together to show what it means to be a woman and a mother in a real way. Heartbreaking and yet hopeful, this is a must-read for just about anyone.

A searing novel on violence, female empowerment, and the vitality of choice, presented in a scintillating translation by Rosalind Harvey.