Best-selling author Elizabeth Gilbert cancels publication of novel set in Russia

“Eat, Pray, Love” author Elizabeth Gilbert said Monday she will not release her new novel, which is set in Russia, as scheduled over “a massive outpouring of reactions” from Ukrainians who took issue with its setting. 

“The Snow Forest” was scheduled for publication on Feb. 13, 2024, but Gilbert said she has decided against moving forward with that timeline.

“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 posted on Instagram. 

“The Snow Forest,” which is set in Siberia in the 20th century, tells 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,” according to Gilbert. 

The author, whose 2006 bestseller “Eat, Pray, Love” was turned into a feature film starring Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem, said her Ukrainian readers expressed “anger, sorrow, disappointment and pain” over the book’s slated release because of its Russian setting. 

“I want to say that I have heard these messages and read these messages and I respect them,” Gilbert said. 

Riverhead, an imprint of Penguin Random House, the book’s publisher, did not immediately respond to CBS MoneyWatch’s request for comment. 

Gilbert said she came to realize that now is not the time to publish her new novel because of Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, which has now dragged on for more than one year, displaced millions of Ukrainians and led major corporations to cut business ties with Russia.

“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,” Gilbert said.