'Eat Pray Love' Author Postpones Roman Set in Russia Due to Backlash From Ukrainian Readers

Elizabeth Gilbert describes this move as a «course correction» in response to the «overwhelming» response. Photo: Rick Madonik/Getty Images

Best-selling author of Eat Pray Love has withdrawn her latest book, set in Russia, due to backlash from readers.

Elizabeth Gilbert, 53, whose 2006 memoir Eat Pray Love sold over 12 million copies, announced a new book set in Siberia that tells the story of a family fleeing the horrors of the Stalinist regime.

«Snowy Forest» was supposed to be released next February, but it was criticized by online reviewers before it hit the shelves.

About 536 people rated the unreleased novel with one star on Goodreads , along with scathing reviews.

Really? The 'ideal' time to promote the 'mystical Russian soul', Russia and the church, is when it commits genocide,» wrote one reviewer, and the comment received 430 likes.

Correction

Faced with backlash from Ukrainian readers, Ms. Gilbert announced on Twitter that she was putting the project on hold.

She called the move a «course correction» in response to the «overwhelming» response.

Important announcement about SNOW FOREST. Please note that if you have been charged for a pre-order, you will receive a full refund. Thank you very much. pic.twitter.com/OAEmrjtfJx

— Elizabeth Gilbert (@GilbertLiz) June 12, 2023

“I received a huge, huge amount of responses and responses from my Ukrainian readers expressing anger, sadness, disappointment and pain over the fact that I decided to release a book to the world right now … which is set in Russia. ”, the author said in the video.

“Now is not the time to publish this book.”

No new publication date has been announced.

Easy to “romanticize”

Other the critic, who left Irina's name in Cyrillic in his review, said: «When you live far from Russia, you can romanticize a lot.

«The mysterious Russian soul in the Siberian wilderness, etc. A lot of inspiration for those who do not knows about this people.”

She added: “Russians cannot be saved, cannot be “civilized”. They themselves are a civilization of pure evil.

“The only thing we can do is protect ourselves from them, protect European civilization and make sure they don't have enough capacity to kill everyone they want. . That's it.»

Ms. Gilbert said she would focus on other projects, and people who bought the book in advance would receive a full refund.