Sally Rooney takes a stand
“I have made every effort to be honest with the public about my beliefs and intentions, and I am wholly prepared to accept the consequences.” Sally Rooney
Irish writer won’t back down
Sally Rooney, 35, is currently Ireland’s most successful literary author. Claire Keegan, John Banville, Colm Toibin, Anne Enright, Kevin Barry, and John Boyne may be better writers, but they haven’t sold nearly as many books as Rooney; nor had their novels profitably turned into successful television series.
Ms. Rooney is also Ireland’s most controversial writer. She supports Palestine to the extent of donating proceeds from her book sales to a group called Palestine Action. That support could cost her millions of dollars in royalties.
PA, which has a stated goal of “ending global participation in Israel’s genocidal and apartheid regime,” is listed as a terrorist group by the British government. For Rooney to be supporting PA financially with a share of the profits from her sales in Britain is a crime. So, her publisher, Faber, won’t be selling new copies of her books in the United Kingdom any longer. (Old copies are still on the shelves.)
There’s a business opportunity here smuggling copies of Normal People, etc. into England, Wales, and Scotland. You can become a booklegger.
Seriously, though. Rooney has her supporters and her critics. She stands to leave a lot of money on the table, as does her publisher. Her sales in Ireland and England dwarf her sales elsewhere in the world. (Her work is available in 40 languages.) Exactly how much this stand is costing her is impossible to estimate without inside knowledge. Rooney, who lives in Castlebar, Co. Mayo with her husband, who teaches math, has proclaimed “I’m a feminist and a Marxist.” Says her parents raised her to be a Scialist. So, amassing a fortune through book sales apparently isn’t her endgame.
Her case came up in the House of Commons yesterday (Oct. 26). independent MP Shockat Adam said: “Sally Rooney is a writer and not a terrorist. Yet her books are being withdrawn from shelves up and down the country. Under a new Prime Minister, will this Government now reverse, or does the Home Secretary see any author she disagrees with as a terrorist?”
Terrorist? “Sally Rooney looks like the poster girl for dark academia – she wears a series of sweaters and dark tartans, backlit with moody autumn light” Source: Linda Brownlee/Guar dian/eyevine
Getting this all sorted out
Next week, her case against the listing of PA as a terrorist outfit goes to the highest court in the Kingdom (United). In February, the (lower) High Court ruled that the decision to ban Palestine Action was unlawful and disproportionate. However, that ruling was overturned by the Court of Appeal in June, which found that the ban was lawful. An appeal over the ban is due to be heard by the UK Supreme Court on 4 and 5 November. Reports the Independent of October 26.
Sally Rooney’s “Impotent protests”
The banning in Britain of Sally Rooney novels won’t have the impact it would have had in the pre-digital days. For some of her critics, this is all performative.
She has already sold six million copies worldwide, including 2.3 million in the UK. Those television adaptations would have been lucrative. She can easily live without further British royalties. Here’s how American author Lionel Shriver (We Need to Talk about Kevin) sees things. Sally Rooney is a posturing ingrate.
“Chances are that once the usefully high-profile hoo-ha has died down, some accommodation will be reached. Rooney may quietly moderate her vow to funnel royalties to PA; the Supreme Court may strike down the PA ban. One way or another, in due course her novels are apt to once again be available for purchase in Britain.
This isn't Rooney's first gesture of impotent activism. She flaunted her refusal to sell Hebrew translation rights to her third novel, her Israeli publisher being politically impure.”
Not surprisingly, copies of her four novels are a hot item in book stores throughout Britain, reports The Guardian.
Sally Rooney is a writer, not a terrorist
An open letter to the government from leading authors, artists and public figures.
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