Best-selling author Elizabeth Gilbert’s decision to delay publication of a forthcoming novel—after it got hundreds of one-star reviews because it is set in Russia—has unleashed a backlash in the publishing world.
Gilbert, whose memoir Eat Pray Love sold millions of copies, announced the publication of her eighth book—about a family of religious fundamentalists living in 20th century Siberia—with much fanfare last week.
But on Monday, she announced on social media that The Snow Forest will not come in February as planned, due to an “enormous, massive outpouring of reactions and responses from my Ukrainian readers.”
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“It is not the time for this book to be published,” she said in a video posted on Twitter. “And I do not want to add any harm to a group of people who have already experienced and who are continuing to experience grievous and extreme harm.”
A representative from her American publisher, Riverhead Books, told The New York Times the book has been delayed “indefinitely.”
Many of the commenters on Gilbert’s Twitter post thanked her for the decision, with one user writing: “That's what integrity looks like.”
But Gilbert’s peers in the book world weren’t so thrilled.
PEN America, an organization that advocates for writers’ freedom of expression, condemned the move, calling it “regrettable”—especially since those criticizing the book have yet to read it.
“Ukrainians have suffered immeasurably, and Gilbert’s decision in the face of online outcry from her Ukrainian readers is well-intended,” CEO Suzanne Nossel said in a statement. “But the idea that, in wartime, creativity and artistic expression should be preemptively shut down to avoid somehow compounding harms caused by military aggression is wrongheaded.”
Gilbert’s surprise announcement came after the book’s GoodReads page was flooded over the weekend with more than 500 1-star reviews decrying its “romanticization” of Russia. A plot summary on the website describes the book as the story of a “lone family of religious fundamentalists” who live completely removed from society in a “remote, high-altitude corner of Siberia.”
One literary scout who works in foreign markets and who asked to remain anonymous to protect her business told The Daily Beast she reacted to the delay with “a bit of a gigantic eye roll.”
“It feels like really real half-baked virtue signaling and just kind of a cop-out,” she said.
She added that the publishing world’s response to the war in Ukraine has seemed “slap-dash” overall, pointing to publishers like Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster’s decision not to work in Russia following the invasion. Even PEN America was criticized last month when it pulled two Russian authors from a panel after Ukranian participants complained.
“It feels like one of those things where people use Russia as a catch-all for everything in the world they don’t like,” she said. “People were quick to be like, ‘That’s my solution to this.’”
Fellow authors also raised their concerns online, with Uncertain Ground author Phil Klay labeling GIlbert’s decision “pretty silly.”
“I just can't get over what a bizarre move self-cancelling your own book over 500 Goodreads reviews is, especially when not one of those ‘reviewers’ has actually read it,” added Appleseed author Matt Bell. “In the past, most self-censorship happened at the desk, but maybe now it happens before the ring light.”
Read it at LitHub
