Why Ukrainians Targeted the Author of Eat, Pray, Love

Published: June 21, 2023, 11:35 p.m.

b'Earlier this month, the writer Elizabeth Gilbert announced her next book. Readers who know her only as the author of \\u201cEat, Pray, Love\\u201d might have been surprised by its subject: a group of Russians who hide in the Siberian wilderness as an act of resistance against the Soviet government. The announcement was met by harshly negative feedback from Ukrainian readers, who accused Gilbert of \\u201cglorifying\\u201d Russia, and she decided to halt the book\\u2019s publication. Free-speech advocates lamented the decision, with some asking whether Tolstoy would be next.\\xa0\\nIn January, the New Yorker staff writer Elif Batuman published an essay about Ukraine\\u2019s grievances against Tolstoy and his literary peers. In it, Batuman explores how great Russian novels have been used to justify military aggression in the Slavic world, and contends with the moral weight of loving these books. She joins Tyler Foggatt to talk about Gilbert\\u2019s dilemma and to consider how imperialism should change our experience of art.'