Eat, Pray ... Boycott? Elizabeth Gilbert's withdrawn novel is a valid act of cultural resistance

Abstract

<p>Elizabeth Gilbert, the celebrated author of Eat, Pray, Love, has cancelled her latest novel, The Snow Forest. Planned for publication in February 2024, there is now no release date.</p> <p>Gilbert declared that her decision to suspend publication was out of respect for her (potential) Ukrainian readers, who had taken to the review website Goodreads to express their sorrow and displeasure at the news that The Snow Forest was set in Russia.</p> <p>The act of self-cancellation raises some interesting questions. Gilbert's novel is apparently set in the mid-20th century in Siberia and concerns a group of people who decide to remove themselves from society to resist the Soviet government and defend nature against industrialisation, so it potentially has some important messages for modern audiences.</p> <p>Some have described the self-cancellation as being prompted by "a few hundred people participating in a stage-managed event … a fascistic minority … obeying the instructions of various far-right nationalist outfits". The novelist Francine Prose has expressed concern that Gilbert is caving to online bullying.</p>