Sally Rooney's Books Pulled From U.K. Shelves Over Palestine Action Support

By Tom Whitfield

Faber will no longer supply Sally Rooney's books in the United Kingdom, in any format, because paying the author her U.K. earnings could now constitute a criminal offence under British terrorism law. The publisher confirmed the decision on February's quiet news cycle with a statement that leaves one of the world's bestselling literary novelists effectively unsold in the country that made her a phenomenon.

The cause is Rooney's declared support for Palestine Action, the direct-action protest network proscribed as a terrorist organization in the U.K. in July 2025 under the Terrorism Act 2000. Weeks after the ban, Rooney wrote an opinion piece in the Irish Times stating her intention to keep supporting the group — which remains legal in the Republic of Ireland, where she lives.

"In July 2025, the direct-action protest group Palestine Action was proscribed as a terrorist organization in the U.K.," Rooney said in a statement. "The following month, I wrote an opinion piece expressing my intention to go on supporting Palestine Action, which is not a proscribed or otherwise prohibited group here in the Republic of Ireland."

What does this change for readers?

Rooney's novels — Conversations with Friends and Normal People, the latter adapted into the award-winning miniseries that launched Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones — will disappear from new sale in the U.K. Faber frames this as forced, not chosen.

"Current legislation in the U.K. has led to circumstances where Faber cannot pass on U.K. earnings to Sally Rooney for her work," the publisher said. "To sell a writer's work and not be able to pass on earnings is an unconscionable situation for a publisher. As such, and in full agreement with Sally, we have taken the decision that we can no longer supply her works in the U.K. in any format."

Faber added that it remains "the proud publisher of her remarkable body of work" and will continue selling it in other territories. Second-hand copies, of course, are beyond any publisher's control — a gap neither statement addresses.

A decision Rooney says she accepts

The 35-year-old author has not softened her position. She has already canceled a trip to England to collect an award, and, she says, all future public appearances there, for fear of arrest.

"As a result, the fulfilment of contracts to publish my work in the U.K. could now constitute a serious criminal offence," Rooney said. "After a process of consultation and deliberation, and with my full agreement, my publisher Faber has therefore determined that it can no longer supply my work within the U.K. 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."

Her August 2025 Irish Times op-ed was more direct still. "Palestine Action has been among the strongest of those voices in the UK, taking direct steps to halt the seemingly unstoppable machinery of violence," she wrote. "We owe their courageous activists our gratitude and solidarity. And by now, almost two years into a live-streamed genocide, we owe the people of Palestine more than mere words."

The context is the war that followed Hamas's massacre of more than 1,200 people on October 7, 2023. Retaliatory Israeli military operations in Gaza have reportedly killed more than 75,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The questions that remain

Neither Rooney nor Faber has specified how U.K. readers might legally obtain her work going forward, or whether digital sales cease immediately alongside print. The word "any format" suggests total withdrawal, but no timeline appears in either statement.

What is clear: a bestselling author has been removed from an entire national market not by boycott or backlash, but by the publisher's own reading of anti-terrorism legislation. Whether other U.K.-based publishers face similar pressure over authors with ties to proscribed groups is the question the trade will now have to answer.