“Important and valuable” – Stary Lev Publishing House thanked the American author Elizabeth Gilbert for withdrawing the book about Russia from publication

The editor-in-chief and co-founder of the Stary Lev Publishing House Maryana Savka considers the decision of the American writer Elizabeth Gilbert to cancel the publication of her new book about Russia a “willful act” that shows empathy for Ukrainian readers.

Ms. Savka stated this in a comment to the request of the Ukrainian service of the Voice of America.

“I feel great gratitude to Ukrainian readers who read and love our Ukrainian editions of Gilbert, and who wrote to the author about all their fair emotions caused by her announcement of the publication of a novel about a Russian family that hid in Siberia from Soviet society. And I am also grateful to Elizabeth for the fact that she showed empathy for her Ukrainian readers, heard all of us, and made a willful decision to cancel the publication of the novel right now,” said the co-founder and editor-in-chief of VSL.

Mrs. Savka emphasized that the removal of the book will have its consequences for the author, saying, “this is not a painless process.”

“In large foreign publishing houses, the publication of a novel is a long process, very well planned in advance. I think that the announcement of the novel was also part of this long-term plan, conceived even before the full-scale invasion (as was the writing of the novel, according to Gilbert, during the quarantine). And removing this book from the publishing plan of a giant publisher is, I suspect, not a painless process. It is important and valuable that it happened after all,” said Maryana Savka.

Stary Lev Publishing House has published at least 6 books by Elizabeth Gilbert in Ukrainian translation. Maryana Savka reported that if Gilbert’s new book had been published, VSL would not have translated this novel into Ukrainian.

“We would very much like our foreign colleagues to pay attention to such sensitive moments, and always articulate their pro-Ukrainian and anti-Russian position in life and creativity,” concluded the VSL editor.

As the Voice of America reported, the American writer Elizabeth Gilbert announced that at the request of Ukrainian readers, she is postponing the planned publication of her new book The Snow Forest, which takes place in Russia.

The author reported that over the weekend she received “a huge, massive stream of reactions and responses from Ukrainian readers who expressed anger, grief, disappointment and pain over the fact that I decided to publish a book – any book, regardless of the topic – in which the action takes place in Russia”.

“I heard these messages. I read them. And I respect them,” said the American writer, who in the past was a journalist in a number of American magazines.

“I don’t want to add pain to a group of people who have already experienced and continue to experience terrible extreme pain,” said Elizabeth Gilbert about the Ukrainian people.

The new book, according to Gilbert, tells the story of a group of people who decided to leave their lives in society to oppose Soviet rule and try to protect nature from industrialization.