Still Born is the story of two friends who make diametrically opposite choices in life. Alina and Laura are independent and career-driven women in their mid-thirties, neither of whom have ever 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 Alinas daughter survives childbirth after a diagnosis that predicted the opposite and Laura becomes attached to her neighbours son, both women are forced to reckon with the complexity of their emotions. With her signature candour and insight, Nettel explores maternal ambivalence with a surgeons touch, carefully dissecting the contradictions that make up the lived experiences of women.
