Sally Rooney's publisher will no longer supply her novels to bookshops in the United Kingdom, the author has confirmed, after her public support for the activist group Palestine Action. The decision affects print editions of Normal People, Conversations With Friends and Beautiful World, Where Are You, and follows the earlier withdrawal of digital editions from sale in the UK.
Rooney said the move came after consultation with her publisher Faber and with her full agreement. In a statement shared with the BBC, she explained that the fulfilment of contracts to publish her work in the UK could now constitute a serious criminal offence, given the legal status of Palestine Action. The UK government proscribed the group as a terrorist organisation in 2025. Rooney added that she had made every effort to be honest with the public about her beliefs and intentions, and that she was wholly prepared to accept the consequences.
The author first set out her position last August in an article for The Irish Times, where she promised to keep supporting Palestine Action and what she described as direct action against genocide, including with the proceeds from her books. She wrote that if this made her a supporter of terror under UK law, so be it. The group says it works to end global participation in what it calls Israel's genocidal and apartheid regime.
The proscription has been contested in the courts. Earlier this year, three senior judges ruled that the ban on the group under anti-terrorism laws was unlawful and disproportionate. The Metropolitan Police subsequently said it would stop arresting people for showing support for Palestine Action but would continue to gather evidence in case prosecutions arise in the future. The organisation nonetheless remains classified as a terrorist organisation.
Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori described the withdrawal of Rooney's work as a new low in what she called the escalating assault on free speech caused by the proscription. She said Rooney had refused to compromise her convictions even at considerable personal and professional cost, and argued that her work should be celebrated and widely available rather than driven off the shelves of British bookshops. No author, Ammori added, should have to choose between their principles and their freedom to publish.
Amnesty International UK's chief executive, Kerry Moscogiuri, also criticised the situation, saying that whatever one's views on Palestine Action, there should be concern when laws intended to combat terrorism end up silencing artistic freedom and peaceful political dissent. She said writers should not find their books disappearing from shelves because of their political beliefs, nor should people have to choose between expressing their conscience and pursuing their livelihoods.
Existing copies of Rooney's novels can still be sold by shops that already hold stock, but no new print editions can be supplied within the UK. The case has become part of a wider debate about the boundary between counter-terrorism legislation and freedom of expression, a question that has drawn in musicians and other public figures as well as publishers and human rights organisations.