Why Ukrainians Targeted the Author of “Eat, Pray, Love”
The Political Scene | The New Yorker
The New Yorker
4.3 • 3.9K Ratings
🗓️ 21 June 2023
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Earlier this month, the writer Elizabeth Gilbert announced her next book. Readers who know her only as the author of “Eat, Pray, Love” 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 “glorifying” Russia, and she decided to halt the book’s publication. Free-speech advocates lamented the decision, with some asking whether Tolstoy would be next.
In January, the New Yorker staff writer Elif Batuman published an essay about Ukraine’s 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’s dilemma and to consider how imperialism should change our experience of art.
Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choicesTranscript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi there, I'm Lale Arikoglu, and this podcast is brought to you by Wilderness, a conservation-driven |
| 0:06.4 | hospitality company that offers intimate world life encounters in extraordinary remote landscapes. |
| 0:12.5 | Last year, I embarked on two separate solo adventures with Wilderness, one to Botswana and the other |
| 0:18.2 | to Namibia, where the expert guides delivered a truly once-in-a-lifetime |
| 0:23.6 | experience. I promise you, whatever you watch and see before you go won't prepare you for the thrill |
| 0:29.4 | of a wilderness adventure. eBay, it's a place to fall in love with new pre-loved vintage and rare |
| 0:36.6 | fashion over and over again. |
| 0:39.0 | Your favorite designers, expertly authenticated. |
| 0:42.5 | Yeah, eBay. |
| 0:44.0 | Things people love. |
| 0:50.6 | You're listening to the political scene. |
| 0:53.0 | I'm Tyler Foggett, and I'm a senior editor at The New Yorker. |
| 0:55.9 | Hey, everybody, it's Liz. |
| 0:57.1 | If you happened to be watching... |
| 0:58.3 | This month, the writer Elizabeth Gilbert announced a new book. |
| 1:01.5 | To readers who only know her as the author of Eat, Pray, Love, its subject may be surprising. |
| 1:06.4 | The true story of this extraordinary family who managed to hide in the Siberian wilderness for half |
| 1:12.4 | a century without any human contact. But after the announcement, Gilbert got some very strong |
| 1:17.7 | feedback from her Ukrainian readers. Over the course of this weekend, I have received an enormous, |
| 1:25.2 | massive outpouring of reactions and responses from my Ukrainian readers, |
| 1:31.2 | expressing anger, sorrow, disappointment, and pain about the fact that I would choose to release |
| 1:41.0 | a book into the world right now, any book, no matter what the subject of it is, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The New Yorker, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The New Yorker and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.