Sally Rooney Is Wrong, and So Is What’s Happening to Her

On October 14, the publisher Faber & Faber announced that it would stop selling books by the Irish novelist Sally Rooney in the United Kingdom.

Rooney has declared her intention to donate her earnings to a group called Palestine Action, which was banned last year by the British government.

Her publisher concluded that it could not continue to pay royalties that would end up in the hands of a registered terrorist organization.

“To sell a writer’s work and not be able to pass on earnings is an unconscionable situation for a publisher,” Faber said in a statement.

“As such, and in full agreement with Sally, we have taken the decision that we can no longer supply her works in the UK in any format.” Almost immediately, international best sellers such as Normal People and Conversations With Friends began to disappear from the shelves of British bookstores.

Because of Rooney’s fame as both a “voice of her generation” and a pro-Palestinian activist, Faber’s decision provoked an outcry among advocates of the Palestinian cause, defenders of free expression, and writers and readers.

But Rooney’s books haven’t been banned.

Rather, their author, an Irish citizen, has decided to challenge the law of a foreign country, the United Kingdom.

Britain’s 2000 Terrorism Act makes it a crime if a person “provides money or other property” and “knows or has reasonable cause to suspect that it will or may be used for the purposes of terrorism.” In this expansive language, the publisher would be on the hook along with its star author. [ Conor Friedersdorf: Europe’s free-speech problem ] By promising her royalties to Palestine Action, Rooney has forced her publisher’s hand—the key phrase in Faber’s brief statement is “in full agreement with Sally.” Faber could have tested the law in court, as courageous publishers have done in other cases, but it took a more direct course in cooperation with Rooney.

No doubt she knows what she’s doing.

She must have anticipated the storm of indignant editorials, social-media posts, and open letters that has followed the withdrawal of her books.

At considerable cost to herself and her publisher, she’s using her cultural power to draw attention to the ban on Palestine Action and embarrass the British government into reversing it.

This is not a story of literary censorship, but one of civil disobedience for political ends.

If Rooney had earmarked her royalties for Hamas, there would be nothing more to say—she would deserve the wrath of a reasonable law.