Faber Stops Shipping Sally Rooney Books in Britain
The publisher says British law leaves it unable to pay the author her earnings, and the novelist says she is ready to accept the consequences.
In November last year, Sally Rooney warned in a statement filed with the High Court in London that her books could vanish from British bookshops and that she might not be able to publish new ones in Britain. On Wednesday, October 14, 2026, her publisher Faber announced that it will no longer ship the Irish novelist’s books in the United Kingdom in any format, and, as both sides tell it, with her full agreement.
What exactly did Faber say?
The publisher justified the decision by pointing to British legislation, not to artistic or commercial reasons. Its statement reads:
“Current regulations in the United Kingdom have created circumstances in which Faber cannot pay Sally Rooney the revenue earned from her works in the British market. For a publisher, selling a writer’s works while being unable to pay her what she earns is ethically unacceptable.”
Faber adds that it remains a “proud publisher” of her work and will keep selling the books in other markets. Asked by Irish public broadcaster RTE what will happen to copies already in British shops, it replied briefly: “Stock will not be recalled.” Shops can therefore sell what they have until it runs out, and copies are not returned to the publisher.
Why does a terrorism law affect one novelist?
The British government proscribed Palestine Action as a terrorist organization in July 2025, and under the terrorism law, support for a banned organization is a criminal offense. After the ban, Rooney said she would direct the earnings from her books and television adaptations to the group, and in August 2025 she wrote a guest essay in The Irish Times that included the line:
“I support Palestine Action. If that makes me a ‘supporter of terrorism’ under British law, so be it.”
Faber’s statement does not mention that reason: the publisher speaks only of current regulations, while her announcement about where her earnings would go was reported by RTE as her earlier position. In a statement published the same day, Rooney herself wrote that, after that essay, carrying out her publishing contracts in Britain “could now amount to a serious criminal offense,” and that the publisher, “after consultation and consideration,” concluded it could no longer distribute the works. She closed with sentences reported by both RTE and Publishers Weekly:
“I have done everything in my power to be honest with the public about my beliefs and intentions, and I am fully prepared to accept the consequences.”
For now there are no further comments from her or from the publisher.
The legal fight over the ban is not over
The dispute over the ban itself continues. The High Court ruled in February 2026 that the decision to proscribe the group was unlawful and disproportionate, but the Court of Appeal overturned that ruling in June and found the ban lawful. The UK Supreme Court will consider the appeal on November 4 and 5. Rooney lives in County Mayo in Ireland, and she earlier canceled a trip to Britain at which she was due to receive a literary prize, because she feared arrest.
The scale of what British readers are losing shows in the sales figures. According to the Serbian daily Danas, “Normal People” has sold more than a million copies in Britain, and “Conversations with Friends” and “Beautiful World, Where Are You” more than 500,000 each. The first two novels also became television adaptations, and her latest novel, Intermezzo, came out in 2024.
Publishers Weekly reports that Rooney is one of the public figures who have loudly challenged the ban, arguing that it violates civil liberties, and that it asked British writers’ associations for comment. Copies already in shops stay on sale until stock runs out, and under Faber’s decision no new shipments will arrive in any format.
