Eat Pray Love‘s author is canceling the release of her new, Russia-set novel
Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the popular book-turned-Julia-Roberts-film, will not release her new novel after apparently receiving criticism from Ukrainian fans
Aux News Eat Pray Love
Eat Pray Love author Elizabeth Gilbert has elected not to release her upcoming novel The Snow Forest, a work of historical fiction following a group of isolated Russian fundamentalists in 1930s Siberia, after a reported outcry from Ukrainian readers.
In a video message shared to her Instagram account, Gilbert says that she has “received an enormous, massive outpouring of reactions and responses from my Ukrainian readers 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.”
She continues: “I want to say that I have heard these messages and read these messages and I respect them. And as a result, I’m making a course correction and I’m removing the book from its publication schedule. It is not the time for this book to be published.” In the video’s caption, Gilbert stated that readers who purchased The Snow Forest on pre-order would be issued refunds accordingly.
Gilbert isn’t the first author to alter her plans in the nearly 500 days since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Prominent authors like Linwood Barclay and Stephen King have publicly stated they will not renew book contracts in Russia. That said, Gilbert’s decision to boycott the setting of The Snow Forest seems like fan service as much as it is an anti-war stance. The author concluded: “I do not want to add any harm to a group of people who have already experienced and who are all continuing to experience grievous and extreme harm.”
According to Gilbert, while she pauses publicity for The Snow Forest she has “other book projects that I’m working on and I’ve made a decision to turn my attention to working on those now.” Currently, The Snow Forest’s release date is listed as January 2, 2079 on Amazon; any Gilbert fans yearning for a Siberian storyline, shouldn’t expect one soon.
23 Comments
Putin invading Ukraine harmed Ukrainians, Gilbert setting a book in Siberia plainly does not.
Look, here’s what’cha do: ya publish the book. Hell, the trees have already been cut down so there’s no goin’ back on that one. You just change all the references to the isolated Russian fundamentalists carrying guns to isolated Russian fundamentalists carrying walkie-talkies.
Problem solved, problem stayin’ solved.
Easier than that, even: Just go in and add a P to all the Russias. Now the book is set in Prussia.
Prussians are BAD ASS! They’d never change their guns for walkie-talkies!
Why do you hate the Yotvingians?
A new Gilbert book harms everyone.
Elizabeth Gilbert has elected not to release her upcoming novel “Is Cold, Drink”, a work of historical fiction following a group of isolated Russian fundamentalists in 1930s Siberia
That’s pretty dumb. It would be one thing if there were some sort of business arrangement that she had with a Russian company. ‘Don’t say Russia’ is ridiculous.Though – and I do want to be clear that I’m being tongue in cheek here – how could an American believe that they can write from the perspective of someone whose lived experience they don’t share? The only people who can write about being Russian are Russians.
Nabokov pretty effortlessly wrote Americans perfectly. But ten thousand Americans sitting at ten thousand typewriters could never produce The Brothers Karamazov, let alone The Master and Margarita
Well that’s the dumbest shit I’ve heard today.
“Well that’s the dumbest shit I’ve heard today.”
YEAH, what kind of writer LISTENS to her fans????
I think Gilbert has more depth than people often paint her with, but perhaps not the readers attracted to her works.
Eat, Pray, Love was actually very out of character from her previous writing and kind of pigeonholed her, leading to an aggressively mediocre follow-up book about marriage that I started reading in a waiting room once. This project sounds like it could have been an interesting turn, though I probably wouldn’t have picked it up, admittedly.
And I mean, Eat, Pray Love is a lovely story about someone choosing adventure later in life. But yes, might have attracted some loud white ladies on socials that don’t want her to steer away from that type of story.
This is not only stupid but dare I say intellectually treacherous? Do we really want to go down this path?
It’s neither. It’s financially prudent. A book set in Russia will obviously sell better at a time that readers are more sympathetic to Russia than this moment
“This is not only stupid but dare I say intellectually treacherous?”
It’s neither, and you’re an asshole.
Treacherous? FUCK OFF.
That game with the gun will henceforth be renamed Freedom Roulette.
I liked the snarky travel pieces she used to write for SPIN back in the nineties, so I know that she can write. But maybe she suspects this book’s not all that great and needs a reason not to release it. Wheels within wheels, X-Files type stuff, I know, but still.
“But maybe she suspects this book’s not all that great and needs a reason not to release it.”
Or maybe she…listens to her fans?
What a stupid timeline.
“That said, Gilbert’s decision to boycott the setting of The Snow Forest seems like fan service as much as it is an anti-war stance.”
It’s entirely fan service. DID YOU NOT READ THE ARTICLE YOU WROTE????