Faber said it can no longer supply Sally Rooney's books in the UK in any format, after the novelist pledged her British royalties to the banned group Palestine Action.
What they're saying: Current legislation in the UK has led to circumstances where Faber cannot pass on UK earnings to Sally Rooney for her work, the publisher said in a statement dated October 14.
- To sell a writer work and not be able to pass on earnings is an unconscionable situation for a publisher, Faber added, saying the decision was taken in full agreement with Rooney.
The backstory: Britain banned Palestine Action under terrorism legislation in July last year, citing serious damage to property. It was the first terrorist designation given to an organisation that stops short of calling for violence against people.
Zoom in: Rooney, 35, wrote in The Irish Times last year that she would use her British proceeds and her public platform to go on supporting the group, adding that if this makes her a supporter of terror under UK law, so be it.
By the numbers: Anyone who provides financial assistance to the group faces up to 14 years in prison. Several thousand people in the UK have been arrested over support for it, mainly for carrying placards or wearing T-shirts.
- Rooney says she has stopped travelling from her home in Ireland to the UK for award ceremonies and other events since the law came into force, for fear of arrest.
The other side: UN human rights chief Volker Turk called the ban disproportionate and unnecessary, and Amnesty International UK said Britain has a deeply flawed and overly broad definition of terrorism.
What's next: The ban has moved through the courts: the high court ruled against it in February, a court of appeal overturned that decision, and the case reaches Britain highest court next month.
Why it matters: The author of Normal People is now effectively unpublishable in one of the biggest English-language markets, which turns a counter-terrorism designation into a test of where funding ends and speech begins.
