Author Elizabeth Gilbert, who is best known for her hit debut novel 'Eat, Pray, Love', had recently announced her new novel 'The Snow Forest' which is set in Russia. However, in a social media post, the author revealed on June 12 that she has now withdrawn the book from publication following backlash from her Ukrainian readers.
"So last week I announced the upcoming publication 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 (it) 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. But over the course of this weekend I have 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 right now, any book, no matter what the subject of it is, that is set in Russia. And 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," Gilbert said in a video message.
Read more details about 'The Snow Forest' HERE.
In 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. Since then, the two countries are at war with each other for roughly 500 days. In context to this, the author further said, “And 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. So that is the choice I have made."
"I have other book projects that I’m working on and I’ve made a decision to turn my attention to working on those now," she added.
'The Snow Forest' was originally scheduled to release in February 2024.
Meanwhile, many authors including Stephen King and Linwood Barclay had earlier said that they won't renew their book contracts in Russia considering its invasion in Ukraine in 2022.
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