A Russian book distributor has ordered bookshops to “return or destroy” works by the Pulitzer Prize-winner Jeffery Eugenides and the British bestseller Bridget Collins, among others, in the latest case of censorship targeting the country’s literary scene.
Trading House BMM sent a letter to shops this week, seen by the BBC, with a list of 37 titles that should immediately be removed from sale.
The list also included texts by Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek, Japanese novelist Ryu Murakami, and a number of Russian writers.
The order comes amid growing Kremlin censorship since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which has targeted books featuring anti-war sentiment, LGBTQ themes, and criticism of Russia’s leadership.
The letter warned of “adverse consequences” if books such as Eugenides’ The Virgin Suicides and Murakami’s Ecstasy were not pulled from shelves as there were suspicions they “do not comply with Russian laws,” without providing further details.
Booksellers should “immediately cease sales and return [the titles] or destroy the remaining copies, providing writing confirmation of destruction”, the message said.
Russia banned the promotion of “non-traditional sexual orientations” to minors in 2013 but since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine has expanded the law to forbid “LGBT propaganda” being disseminated among people of any ages.
Moscow has also labelled what it calls the “international LGBT movement” an “extremist organisation,” despite no such official movement existing.
The BMM letter follows a high-profile case against the publishers behind the teen romance novel A Summer in the Red Scarf and other titles with LGBT themes.
Credit: bbc.com
