Eat Pray Love's author is canceling the release of her new, Russia-set novel

Eat Pray Love author Elizabeth Gilbert has elected not to release her upcoming novel The Snow Forest, a work of historical fiction following a group of isolated Russian fundamentalists in 1930s Siberia, after a reported outcry from Ukrainian readers.

In a video message shared to her Instagram account, Gilbert says that she has “received an enormous, massive outpouring of reactions and responses from my Ukrainian readers expressing anger, sorrow, disappointment and pain 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.”

She continues: “I want to say that 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.” In the video’s caption, Gilbert stated that readers who purchased The Snow Forest on pre-order would be issued refunds accordingly.

Gilbert isn’t the first author to alter her plans in the nearly 500 days since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Prominent authors like Linwood Barclay and Stephen King have publicly stated they will not renew book contracts in Russia. That said, Gilbert’s decision to boycott the setting of The Snow Forest seems like fan service as much as it is an anti-war stance. The author concluded: “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.”

According to Gilbert, while she pauses publicity for The Snow Forest she has “other book projects that I’m working on and I’ve made a decision to turn my attention to working on those now.” Currently, The Snow Forest’s release date is listed as January 2, 2079 on Amazon; any Gilbert fans yearning for a Siberian storyline, shouldn’t expect one soon.