Key Points
- Six days after announcing the release of new book, Elizabeth Gilbert said she had decided to halt the publication.
- The Snow Forest was to be set in Siberia, which is in Russia.
- Some Ukrainians have expressed disappointment over the book being set in Russia.
A decision by best-selling author Elizabeth Gilbert not to publish her latest book set in Russia has "hit close to the bone" for at least one Australian writer.
Melbourne-based writer Lee Kofman has a somewhat unique perspective on Elizabeth Gilbert’s decision not to release her latest novel as planned due to the response received from some Ukrainian readers.
Lee Kofman was born in Siberia, the part of Russia where Elizabeth Gilbert's novel The Snow Forest is set. Ms Kofman has a Russian-Jewish mother and a Ukrainian-Jewish father and lived in both Russia and Ukraine while growing up. Source: Supplied
The Snow Forest
On 6 June, Ms Gilbert, who is best known for her 2006 memoir Eat, Pray, Love, which sold more than 12 million copies, said that her new book, titled The Snow Forest, would be published in February 2024.
Written during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the story is about isolation and is based on an article she'd once read about a family who had lived in the Siberian wilderness without outside contact for half a century.
The book, which follows a string of other, was about a girl born into that world.
In a social media post, Ms Gilbert held up a copy of the book, showing the book's cover and said: “I hope you will buy it.”
But in another post on 12 June, she said anyone who had pre-ordered the book would be refunded as it was not going to be published as planned.
In the video, Ms Gilbert explained the reasons for her decision and said she would turn her attention to working on other projects.
'Anger, sorrow' from Ukrainian readers
Ms Gilbert said The Snow Forest was about "a group of individuals who decided to remove themselves from society, resist government and try to defend nature against industrialisation."
The story was set in Russia’s Siberian region in the 1930s.
It was the reaction to the setting of the book that Gilbert received from Ukrainian people that made her rethink its release.
Some of the feedback Elizabeth Gilbert received after announcing the upcoming release of her book The Snow Forrest. Credit: Aleisha Orr
Russian troops have been fighting Ukrainian forces since Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 amid heavy fighting, including missile attacks, in parts of the country.
"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," Ms Gilbert said.
She said she made the decision as she did not want to add harm to a group of people who had already experienced and who were continuing to experience "grievous and extreme harm.”
Those who commented on the social media post questioned whether it was "necessary" to promote and release a book based in Russia when the country continued to intensify fighting in Ukraine, which
Some commented on Elizabeth Gilbert's announcement about her new book to say they thought its release was "insensitive."
'Slippery slope'
Ms Kofman was born in Siberia to a Russian mother and a Ukrainian father and spent parts of her youth in both Russia and Ukraine.
“I’m very strongly opposed to the war, of course. I am very occupied by this because my formative years were spent there, it's been thoroughly impacting me emotionally, a lot since the war began and we do still have personal connections with people in Ukraine," she said.
“The slaughter has been horrendous, yet I am disappointed by Elizabeth Gilbert withdrawing her book," Ms Kofman said.
"Since, as far as I am aware, Gilbert's novel wasn't political or endorsing Putin's regime, to me this feels wrong that a work of literature is going to be judged by what is happening today in the world and current affairs," she said.
Ms Kofman says she is worried Ms Gilbert's decision not to publish as planned would set a precedent for writers like herself "who are less powerful, less well earning, less known than her, as if we should do things like this as well."
“She can afford to do this but then it sets kind of a precedent, where people say oh, look, we succeeded with Elizabeth Gilbert, let's go and take whatever cause we have to the next writer.”
"Artists cannot function like this in society, we are putting too much pressure on the artists to conform to what is going on today, whereas in literature the aim is really to create something which will hold for the next century or so and still be relevant," she said.
"I just feel that it's a very slippery slope."
Ms Kofman said simply not publishing a book due to its setting was taking a black-and-white approach to literature which "destroys the complexity" that makes novels what they are.
"I think what we're doing at the moment is we're sort of robbing literature of its nuance and complexity," she said.
“In fact, I was asked a few months ago to write an article about my writing practice.
“I wrote about how having grown up in Russia, how it sort of shaped my worldview in some ways as a writer, and the magazine for which I wrote and they decided to pay me for the article but not publish it."
She said she was told it was “not the right time to write something which is kind of semi-positive or kind of a bit nostalgic about Russia.”
Mixed reaction
Reaction online to Ms Gilbert's decision to halt the release of her book has been mixed, while some on Twitter have labelled it an overreaction, Ukrainians have responded by describing it as "compassionate" and a "kind decision," saying they "applaud her sensitivity."
However, some Russians are keen to read a story set in their homeland.
Irina Tomson is a Russian-Australian who would like to see The Snow Forest published.
She moved to Australia in the 1990s with her husband.
While Ms Tomson has lived here for the past 25 years, she remembers a story about a family who lived in the Siberian wilderness disconnected from the rest of the world.
“This [is a] famous story with Russian people,” she said.
Ms Tomson, who lives in Perth, told SBS News she did not see why a book being set in Russia would be enough to stop it being published.
“The true story has nothing to do with Ukrainians,” she said.
