From The Archives: Dua Lipa & Guadalupe Nettel on the transcendent power of care in all its forms in Still Born

Service95 Book Club With Dua Lipa

In this archival episode of the Service95 Book Club, Dua Lipa interviews author Guadalupe Nettel about her novel Stillborn. The conversation

Key takeaways

• Guadalupe Nettel drew inspiration from her friend Amelia's real-life experience with her daughter's health struggles.
• The novel features characters Alina and Laura, who initially share a commitment to being childfree before life changes them.

Main topics

• Caregiving and compassion
• Motherhood and patriarchy

Notable quotes

Once there is a true friendship between you and someone... It's something like a net that holds you on.

Conclusion

The episode provides a moving meditation on the strength found in comm

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) Bumble has partnered with Service95 for a special issue called On Connection, a series of live events and a dedicated newsletter exploring romantic connections in modern life. We're also creating spaces to make that happen. A book tasting themed around love, a curated reading list, and a supper club for those who believe the best conversations happen face to face. Because if you're listening to this, you know books and Bumble are where real connections begin. On Connection, brought to you by Bumble and Service95. Speaker 3 (0:34) Welcome to the Service95 Book Club with me, Dua Lipa. From the archive today, it's Guadalupe Natal, who I spoke to in May 2025 about her extraordinary novel, Stillborn, translated by Rosalind Harvey. We talk about the complicated beauty of caregiving, the expectations placed on women, and how love in all its forms can completely transform our lives. My conversation with Guadalupe, coming up. Speaker 3 (1:06) Hola, Guadalupe. I am so delighted to talk to you today. Before we dig into the novel itself, I'd love to start asking you about your friend, Amelia, who this book is dedicated to. And perhaps you could start by telling us a little bit about Amelia and her daughter and how you came to tell their story. Speaker 1 (1:25) Well, Amelia is a very beautiful and wise person. We're friends since our 20s, so almost 30 years ago. And she's been going through this very difficult experience with such, you know, like emotional intelligence and strength. And I was absolutely touched and inspired by her courage. and the way she faced up to this tragedy and then how she turned it into a very meaningful life, sometimes even a happy life. So for me, that was a miracle that she performed. And she was, you know, she's a very discreet person. She... prefers not to tell everyone everything. When I decided to write about this, of course I had to ask for permission because she is my friend and I absolutely love her and I wouldn't like to hurt her in any way or doing... It would have been a betrayal if she didn't say yes. So I was expecting her to maybe to say no. And the way she reacted moved me a lot as well because she decided to accept. Not because she would like everyone to know what happened to her and her baby, but because she wanted to give visibility to these kind of issues and to families like hers where parents struggle with this news, you know, this reality. And how maybe to give them some strength as well, some advices and to show them. that there is a way to feel okay and even good in that situation. So that was her purpose, and it was also my purpose during the writing of the book. Speaker 3 (3:29) It's so brave, and it's so powerful. And, you know, I guess a true testament to your friendship, that trust between the two of you and her putting such trust in you to write this story. And you say in your dedication... Speaker 3 (3:46) that Amelia granted you the freedom to invent. And I imagine that's important to keep in mind as we talk today. Okay, let's talk about Laura and Alina, the two friends at the center of this story. So when we meet them, they both believe that their motherhood is a trap of the patriarchy, and they're determined to not fall into that. Laura goes as far as having her tubes tied. when she's 33, but then Alina changes her mind. And you kind of think that at this point that their friendship won't survive. But the opposite is actually true. Speaker 1 (4:27) It's funny, when you become friends with someone, normally it happens because you share points of view on life, you share interests, you share common experience. But once there is a true friendship between you and someone... It's something like a net that holds you on. Speaker 3 (4:46) And you can Speaker 1 (4:48) go through very different, you know, like changes or whatever in your life and become very different at some point. But this true love, this true connection will always hold you. And so that's something that I wanted to acknowledge. I have... being through experience like that, and I'm sure you too, once you have a friend, let's say from school, and then you see her many years after, you still have this kind of closeness. Speaker 3 (5:23) Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, absolutely. I think there's this wonderful quote from Laura quite early on in the novel when Alina calls her to tell her that she's pregnant. And it says, I have to admit that hearing her sound so contented was infectious. Although throughout my life I had militated against my sex carrying such a burden, I decided not to wage war against this happiness. I think, you know, it's beautiful. It's exactly what you said. It's that kind of unconditional love that two friends have despite having differences in maybe the way that they choose to lead their life. And that's, I think, a big commonality in a lot of true friendships. That maybe something rocks the boat, but you'll always, always find each other back to each other. Speaker 1 (6:17) Alina and her Speaker 3 (6:17) partner Aurelio's excitement and happiness is cruelly ended when she has this series of scans and it reveals that the baby has microlysis encephaly. And Alina's birth plan... becomes her funeral plan and she's kind of told that Inez, who already has a name before she's born, will only survive a matter of hours right after she's born. In fact, Alina and Aurelio, they start grief counselling before her birth. Alina makes a playlist so she can dance with Inez in the womb. She writes a journal to her. All of her energy is focused on parenting. in as the best she can while she's in the womb as there's no expectation of survival i mean that in itself was so incredibly moving the kind of inherent motherhood that alina had however that's not necessarily what happens you know there's there's no expectation of survival everything gets kind of flipped, right? Speaker 1 (7:24) Yeah, absolutely. It was such a surprise for everyone because the doctors were positive on the fact that the baby was not going to survive the birth. So what Alina has to do is to resonate first and also to enjoy every moment, every instant of... having her alive in her body. So it's really, really hard. And it's a crazy experience to, you know, like this is the only experience of maternity or motherhood I'm going to have. So I will enjoy this till the end. And that's why she doesn't want anyone to make her sleep while she's giving birth. because she wanted to see her baby