Meet acclaimed Mexican author Guadalupe Nettel

Two events at the festival

Guadalupe Nettel will be interviewed about her authorship, why and how she writes, and about themes that are present throughout her work, such as normality, motherhood, the uncanny, love and intimacy, animals, and friendship. During the festival, Nettel will also give a lecture on literature and pain, from physical pain to more subtle forms of suffering, with reference to writers who have influenced her.

Award winning novelist

Nettel was born in Mexico and grew up between Mexico and France. She is the author of the internationally award-winning novels El huésped (2006), The Body Where I Was Born (2011), After the Winter, and Still Born (2020), as well as the short story collections Bezoar (2008) and Natural Histories (2013). Her books are published by Anagrama, one of the most prestigious Spanish-language publishing houses.

Her work has appeared in publications such as Granta, The White Review, El País, The New York Times, The Passenger, La Repubblica, and La Stampa. She is the director of the magazine Revista de la Universidad de México. Her books have also been adapted for theatre, performance, and film.

Still Born was shortlisted for the 2023 International Booker Prize. The novel explores one of life’s most consequential decisions: whether or not to have children.

Praise for her work

Guadaupa Nettel's work has been translated into more than twenty languages and praised by critics, authors and readers all over the world.

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.
Annie Ernaux, winner of the Nobel Prize.

Nettel creates marvelous parallels between the sorrows and follies of her human characters and the creatures they live with.
Carmela Ciuraru, The New York Times.

Published in Norway

Three of Nettel’s novels, The Body Where I Was Born (Kroppen hvor jeg ble født), After the Winter (Etter vinteren) and Still Born (Sjelden fugl) have been published in Norwegian by the publishing houses Solum Bokvennen and Gyldendal. 

References:
The Booker Prize: Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel (thebookerprizes.com)
Guadalupe Nettel’s official website (guadalupenettel.com)