Booksellers have reported selling out of copies of Sally Rooney’s novels, following the news that her books would be withdrawn from sale in the UK, given her support for the banned group Palestine Action. Sales shot up nearly 300% in a week, as a host of high profile writers signed letters in support of the Irish author, including Zadie Smith, Annie Ernaux, Arundhati Roy, Ali Smith and Kamila Shamsie.
Bookmarked, an independent bookshop in Bristol, had three Sally Rooney novels in stock when Faber announced last week that it would stop supplying the author’s books. Within hours, customers had bought all of them. Now the shop has none, and it cannot get any more. “In retrospect, I feel like we should have put them behind a glass casing, forever on display until the law is overturned,” says the shop’s general manager Evelyn.
