'Eat, Pray, Love' author pressured to cancel novel because it's set in Russia

Just days after announcing the upcoming launch of her new book, the author of ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ abruptly announced that she is pulling it from the scheduled launch date after facing online backlash.

Her newest novel, ‘The Snow Forest,’ is set in Siberia in the middle of the last century. According to her Instagram, it tells the story of a family who decided to “remove themselves from society to resist the Soviet government and to try to defend nature against industrialization.” It was inspired by a true story.

Image: Elizabeth_gilbert_writer / Instagram

Gilbert had announced the upcoming book on ‘Good Morning America’ and detailed it on her Instagram. She was thrilled to announce it was coming out next February.

After Gilbert announced the novel, she said she “received an enormous massive outpouring of reactions and responses from my Ukrainian readers 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. ” It had received hundreds of one-star reviews on Goodreads from angry fans.

Image: Elizabeth_gilbert_writer / Instagram

Reacting to the reaction, she said she was “making a course correction” and “removing the book from its publication schedule.” “It’s not the time for this book to be published. And I do not want to add any harm to a group of people who have already experienced and are continuing to experience grievous and extreme harm.”

Image: Elizabeth_gilbert_writer / Instagram

Those pressuring her to pull her Russia-set book were delighted by her move. “But for us, Ukrainians, this is very important. More than anyone else can imagine,” wrote Instagram user zzhannaz. “We Ukrainians defend and protect our home, our country, our life. And so for us it means canceling Russia forever and in everything. Because it will help us survive,” wrote dharmaruha.

But, of course, you can’t please everyone. Perhaps the blowback now is bigger than it was initially, with fans and literary colleagues lamenting her decision to bow to online pressure and decide to self-censor.

Writer Leigh Stein wrote on Unherd that Gilbert’s move could harm other writers. “ A novel can take many years to write; there’s no way to predict whether you’ll sell it to a publisher, let alone predict how geopolitics will impact the public reaction to your work.

“If we can’t stomach novels set in countries that have dark and ugly stains on their records, I have bad news for anyone writing fiction about America,” continued Stein. On Instagram, many pointed out that one of the best Ukranian novels is also set in Siberia: ‘Tiger Trappers’ by Ivan Bahrianyi, which is also about resisting a totalitarian regime.

Stein continues her argument against Gilbert’s decision. “The idea that a novel about a family fleeing religious persecution from Communists is in any way “pro” Russia is not only absurd — it’s also the exact same argument of potential “harm” wielded by the crusading book banners in American schools,” adding that the book will have no material effect on Ukraine whatsoever.

Suzanne Nossel, the head of PEN America, also slammed Gilbert’s decision. “The idea that, in wartime, creativity and artistic expression should be preemptively shut down to avoid somehow compounding harms caused by military aggression is wrongheaded,” she said in a statement to The Times.

“The publication of a novel set in Russia should not be cast as an act exacerbating oppression,” she writes, arguing that literature boosts empathy and mutual understanding and insisting that critics of the book haven’t even read it yet.

“We hope Gilbert might reconsider and we urge others to rally around the on-time publication of her book, and the principle that literature and creativity must not become a casualty of war,” she continued.

Gilbert has stayed silent since announcing her decision to pull the book, and she made it seem as though it’s “indefinitely” on pause. But on Amazon, it now says the book is slated for release in Oct. 2026, nearly half a decade after she wrote it during the depths of the pandemic.

Before she had pulled the book from its publication schedule, she beamed, sharing that she was inspired to write the book while living alone in the woods during the COVID pandemic. “I think anyone who is a creative or spiritual person knows that longing to be as far away at times as possible as you can be from the world. It got me thinking about what is the farthest away that you could go from what we call humanity.”

Gilbert was inspired by an article she read about the Lykov family. They were members of an orthodox sect called Old Believers, who fled to the forest to escape religious prosecution in Communist Russia. They spent 42 years totally cut off and were discovered by a geologist in 1978, but they continued to live isolated.

Gilbert may be best known for ‘Eat, Pray, Love,’ which sold over 12 million copies and inspired a massive movie, but she also wrote an article that inspired the film ‘Coyote Ugly.’ Besides those, she wrote six other books, including the self-help book ‘Big Magic.’ Although pulling this novel, Gilbert said she is working on other books that she will now focus on.