Sally Rooney’s novels are to be withdrawn from supply to UK booksellers after the author and her publisher, Faber, concluded that continuing to sell her work in Britain could constitute a criminal offence. Rooney, whose fiction has sold more than six million copies globally, confirmed the arrangement in a statement reported by BBC News, citing her declared intention to go on supporting Palestine Action, which was proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UK government in 2025.
Ebook editions have already been removed from sale in the UK. Physical copies that booksellers currently hold may remain on shelves: Waterstones told the BBC that Faber had indicated there was nothing stopping retailers from keeping their existing stock.
How the withdrawal came about
The proximate cause is the tension between Rooney’s publicly stated convictions and the legal consequences of acting on them in the UK. In an opinion piece published in the Irish Times in August 2025, Rooney wrote that she would continue directing proceeds from her work towards Palestine Action despite that amounting to an offence under UK proscription law. She also cancelled a planned trip to the UK to collect an award, citing fears of arrest.
In her statement issued on 14 October 2026, Rooney explained the logic: ‘In July 2025, the direct-action protest group Palestine Action was proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK. 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.’ She added: ‘As a result, the fulfilment of contracts to publish my work in the UK could now constitute a serious criminal offence.’ She concluded: ‘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.’
Faber’s statement framed the decision in terms of its obligations to the author as much as to the law. ‘Current legislation in the UK has led to circumstances where Faber cannot pass on UK earnings to Sally Rooney for her work,’ the publisher told the BBC. ‘To sell a writer’s work and not be able to pass on earnings is an unconscionable situation for a publisher.’ Faber added that it would ‘continue to sell in other territories’ and described itself as ‘the proud publisher of her remarkable body of work’.
Rooney’s reach and what is affected
The withdrawal covers all four of Rooney’s novels: Normal People, Conversations With Friends, Beautiful World, Where Are You and Intermezzo. According to NielsenIQ BookData, Rooney has sold 2.3 million copies in the UK alone. Normal People, published in 2018, was adapted into a television series in 2020, a production widely credited with establishing the careers of Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones.
Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori described Rooney as having taken ‘a brave and principled stand from the moment plans to ban Palestine Action were announced’, and said the withdrawal of the author’s work marked ‘a new low in the escalating assault on free speech caused by the proscription of Palestine Action’.
The legal backdrop remains contested. Arrests linked to alleged Palestine Action support have reportedly exceeded 3,700 across the UK, with around 2,500 people charged, though none have yet gone to trial. A legal challenge to the proscription itself is due to be heard by the Supreme Court in November 2026.
