I’m disappointed to learn that Elizabeth Gilbert is removing a book she wrote that was to be published on Feb. 13, 2024.  The reason is criticism from readers in Ukraine.  Their criticism is that the book, The Snow Forest, is set in Russia.  

The book is inspired by a true story of a religious Russian family, who, in the 1930’s, left Russia for a life of solitude in Siberia.  They moved “to resist the Soviet government and to try to defend nature against industrialization”.

In a video message to her fans last week, Gilbert said, “This is a book that is going to take you into the deepest realms of the Siberian taiga, and into the heart and mind of an extraordinary girl born into that world, a girl of great spiritual and creative talent, raised far, far, far from everything that we call normal.”

I would love to read this book, and I find it puzzling that we are sending weapons to a country, to a people, that then tells us what we can read.  I recognize this is probably a few frightened people, and I also recognize that not all Russian people support Putin or this invasion.  

I worry that the next step will be that I’m told I’m not allowed to read Tolstoy’s War and Peace because it’s set in Russia.  

Life is complex; people are complex but censorship is clear.  It’s wrong to take away my right to choose what I read.