More news for the controversial “cancer curing” cookbook.
Simon & Schuster’s Atria Books is set to shred around 7,000 copies of Belle Gibson‘s debut cookbook, The Whole Pantry.
This news comes less than a week after Penguin pulled the book from Australian stores and just days after Apple quietly pulled The Whole Pantry app from its online stores.
For the full story: Munchausen by Internet and Belle Gibson: the rise of faking it online.
The book has been at the centre of a web of controversy for the past few weeks, following doubts around the authenticity of author Belle Gibson‘s claims that she had terminal cancer. Ms Gibson had also credited a diet of natural food as a cure to her cancer.
Further questions were raised when it was revealed that the 23-year-old had also been soliciting donations for charities but that her company had never passed on the almost $300,000 raised. Instead, it was reported that Ms Gibson may have flown to the US on a business class ticket to avoid confronting questions.
The Whole Pantry, which was originally released in Australia late last year, was due to go on sale in the US from April 14. However US publishing house Atria Books made the decision to scrap the cookbook’s release after the ongoing string of allegations brought against Ms Gibson.
More: Belle Gibson’s The Whole Pantry app has been pulled.
“Our decision was made upon the failure of the author to provide clarification for numerous allegations concerning her biography and charitable endeavors,” Atria said in a statement.
All orders for the book were cancelled and the 7,000 copies that had been printed and shipped to warehouses are due to be shredded.
Top Comments
Glad to hear this.
Hope the publisher sends the left over pulp to Ms Fibson so she can make a nice large burger pattie with it. About time she ate some of the foul tripe she's been dishing up.
I wondered if there is something written into contracts between publishers and authors protecting the publisher if it turns out the information in a bio by an author is found to be inaccurate. Presumably some of the more personal, intimate details of an author's life might not be capable of being independently verified and the publisher would only have an author's word to rely on? It's an interesting question whether the responsibility should be on the publisher, the author or both and to what extent a publisher (or media outlet) should be expected to go, to check facts against an author's responsibility to be truthful. At this stage this story seems to have more questions than answers. Regardless of the final outcome, it is really awful that the subject matter of this controversy involves cancer.
Oh, I've been saying all along that the likes of Penguin/Lantern and Apple have just as much to answer to as this silly girl does. They are responsible for promoting and selling her lies just as much as Gibson was herself and should be held accountable too. Her book/product/app etc were not sold under the banner of "fiction".
I would say this is why both companies are ending their relationships – they are just as responsible for any ill harm that came to anyone who took Gibson's word as tried and true.
I still can't believe that these big-name companies within the publishing and media sectors have had the wool pulled over their eyes by this con-artist. Whoever gave her deals at both Apple and Penguin without so much as fact checking the story etc really screwed up!
I'm so appalled that she has lied about having cancer. My brother has a brain tumour and I bought this book to read more about alternative treatments and diets for him to have while he undergoes proper medical treatment. It makes me so angry that she has made this all up. I hope her full story comes out - how many identities she goes by, where she's from, her true age and I hope she is punished by law!
In her book's introduction it says that she didn't know her father, her mother had Cystic Fibrosis and her brother had autism. I bet that's all a lie too!! The girl is a compulsive liar. Shame on her.