Still Born: Shortlisted for International Booker Prize 2023

Guadalupe Nettel, Rosalind Harvey

Still Born, Guadalupe Nettel’s fourth novel, treats one of the most consequential decisions of early adulthood – whether or not to have children – with the intelligence and originality that have won her international acclaim.

Alina and Laura are independent and career-driven women in their mid-thirties, neither of whom have built their future around the prospect of a family. Laura has taken the drastic decision to be sterilised, but as time goes by Alina becomes drawn to the idea of becoming a mother.  

When complications arise in Alina’s pregnancy and Laura becomes attached to her neighbour’s son, both women are forced to reckon with the complexity of their emotions, in Nettel’s sensitive and surgically precise exploration of maternal ambivalence.

This book has been shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2023. Find out more here.

You can find reading guides to the books on the International Booker Prize 2023 shortlist on the International Booker Prize website.

International Booker Prize 2023