Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of the international best-seller 'Eat, Pray, Love' has announced that she will be removing her new novel 'The Snow Forest' from it's publication schedule:
Important announcement about THE SNOW FOREST. Please note that if you were charged for your pre-order, you will be fully refunded. Thank you so much. pic.twitter.com/OAEmrjtfJx
— Elizabeth Gilbert (@GilbertLiz) June 12, 2023
It's hard to imagine putting in the time, work, and research required to finish a novel only to pull it because the country in which it's set is involved in an ongoing conflict. By that metric, almost nothing should be published these days.
Following backlash from Ukrainian readers, 'Eat, Pray, Love' author Elizabeth Gilbert is indefinitely delaying the publication of her Russian-set novel, 'The Snow Forest' https://t.co/rbYxZA7rP8
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) June 12, 2023
From the Entertainment Weekly article:
"So last week I announced the publication date of my most recent novel, a book called The Snow Forest, that was set in the middle of Siberia in the middle of the last century, and told the story of a group of individuals who made a decision to remove themselves from society to resist the Soviet government and to try to defend nature against industrialization," Gilbert said in a video posted to her Instagram page.
"But over the course of this weekend, I have received an enormous, massive outpouring of reactions and response from my Ukrainian readers," she continued. "Expressing anger, sorrow, disappointment, and pain about the fact that I would choose to release a book into the world right now, any book, no matter what the subject of it is, that is set in Russia."
The author and her readers were referencing the war in Ukraine, which has been ongoing for over 400 days following Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year.
Gilbert went on to announce her intention to remove the book from its scheduled release date in respect to these concerns. "I want to say that I have heard these messages, have read these messages and I respect them," she said. "And as a result I'm making a course correction and removing the book from its publication schedule. It is not the time for this book to be published. And I do not want to add any harm to a group of people who have already experienced, and are continuing to experience, grievous and extreme harm."
We're not experts on these matters but 'the story of a group of individuals who made a decision to remove themselves from society to resist the Soviet government' doesn't exactly sound pro-Russia to us.
I applaud Elizabeth Gilbert's choice to not publish a book about people resisting the Russian government, in order to avoid doing harm to people resisting the Russian government
— Adam O'Fallon Price (@AdamOPrice) June 12, 2023
Right??? Make it make sense...if anything, the novel sounds rather inspirational given the current circumstances.
It would seem that a lot of the messages that Gilbert has recived have come via Goodreads, a popular, crowd-sourced book review site:
The goodreads bombing of Elizabeth Gilbert's book is wild and I hate hate hate this precedent with her pulling her book: https://t.co/UmGoCAgM2W https://t.co/h36pN1J20o
— Elisabeth Donnelly (@heydonnelly) June 12, 2023
If you can't follow the link in that tweet, go here:
The Snow Forest by Elizabeth Gilbert | Goodreads
Seems a bit odd that a book that no one has actually read yet has gotten so many one-star reviews, no?
Obviously. Gilbert can do whatever she wants with her work but this does set quite a chilling precedent.
So a novel should not be set in historical Russia now? And that is harmful *how*? I wish people who think this is a beneficent move would really interrogate this line of reasoning. Tell me how a novel set in Siberia in the last century hurts anyone. This is deeply weird. https://t.co/v6rfvdD5vR
— Amanda Fortini (@amandafortini) June 12, 2023
We couldn't agree more.
***
Editor’s Note: Do you enjoy Twitchy’s conservative reporting taking on the radical left and woke media? Support our work so that we can continue to bring you the truth. Join Twitchy VIP and use the promo code SAVEAMERICA to get 40% off your VIP membership!
Join the conversation as a VIP Member