Within days of Elizabeth Gilbert announcing her new novel, The Snow Forest, the book's release has been put on pause. The Eat, Pray, Love author said last week that the novel, set in Siberia in the 1900s, would be released in February. But after outcry followed, with many worried the book would "romanticize" Russia as the country is accused of committing war crimes in Ukraine, Gilbert quickly did a 180, Politico reports. She said her Ukrainian readers had expressed "anger, sorrow, disappointment, and pain about the fact that I would choose to release a book into the world right now ... that is set in Russia."
She says she "respects" those opinions and understands that Ukrainians are currently experiencing "grievous and extreme harm," and so that she does not add to that harm, she is "removing the book from its publication schedule. It is not the time for this book to be published." Though the Hollywood Reporter points out she left the door open for a future release, it's not clear when, or if, that might happen. But Gilbert says she will turn her attention to her other book projects and that anyone who had already pre-ordered The Snow Forest will be refunded. The book had already garnered hundreds of one-star ratings on Goodreads.
Gilbert said the book's plotline involves "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." Some commenters disagreed with her decision to pull it from publication: "I was born in Ukraine, I fully support Ukraine and condemn Russia's actions. But this is an author who has written a book of fiction set in Siberia of the past—this has nothing to do with glorifying the barbaric actions of the Russian army and government today, nor those who support such actions," reads one such sample response. (More Elizabeth Gilbert stories.)
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