🌺🌺STILL BORN, GUADALUPE NETTEL, SHORTLISTED FOR INTERNATIONAL BOOKER 2023🌺🌺

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Originally written in Spanish, translated by ROSALIND HARVEY. Still Born encapsulates motherhood in a simplistic yet gripping manner, that it would resonate with anybody who reads it. I initially read the title as Stillborn and not Still Born and I thought twice before picking Stillborn. On reading however, I realised that the debate on ‘to be or not to be a mother’ arose in both the books, Boulder as well as Still Born.
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The complexity of the issue made me quiet. Nobody is replete of motherly instincts. Motherhood is a Catch-22 kind of situation where one dives into it and is tied to it for a lifetime.  Mothers more than fathers are faced with unprecedented challenges resulting in an emotional backlash. The tipping point of anxiousness makes us decide otherwise. When things get very confusing people long for a simplistic way of life, it is but natural.
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Most ladies have a biological urge, but is the choice imperative? Is motherhood a prerogative or a compulsion imposed on women by the patriarchy? Does it hinder the freedom that women are supposed to have? Why does a mother dog eat up a deformed or sick puppy? What is brood parasitism?
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Still Born is a story about two friends Laura and Alina who both are against the stereotypical role of motherhood. Where on the one hand Laura breaks the shackles of the patriarchal definition of motherhood, on the other hand, Alina chooses the path of motherhood and is faced with an emotional and ethical dilemma.
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The author has brilliantly woven the stories of Laura and Alina, both depicting motherliness and  mothers’ instinct . Parts of it are moving and every part of it is relatable. It also beautifully depicts how a mother can be so possessive of her child.
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The will to survive evolves, in a higher creature like us, into the will to matter.
-Rebecca Goldstein
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