VIENNA — A recall of 28,400 copies of actress Mara Wels’s memoir has brought an undisclosed version of the book into view: at least 1,146 copies included a 16-page afterword backing the protest group Civic Lantern. The insert was not listed in the published contents, and the publisher says it did not approve the text for sale.
The recall began on Tuesday after the metal page marker sold with the special edition was found to come loose. As staff checked returned copies, they noticed that some contained the additional pages. Vienna-based publisher Larch House says it is now trying to establish how many were distributed and who authorised their inclusion.
The pages inside the recall
Bonnie Munusamy-Kumar, manager of an independent bookshop in Vienna’s Neubau district, said her shop had sold 37 copies and received three returns. “We thought we were dealing with a faulty accessory. Then customers started asking why one version had a political essay and another didn’t,” she said.
In the afterword, Wels urges readers to support Civic Lantern, a campaign opposing a proposed expansion of public-camera monitoring. The group has held sit-ins at municipal offices, but the text offers no details about its finances or organisation. The standard edition contains no reference to the campaign.
We were selling one book by its cover and discovering another between the pages.
Bonnie Munusamy-Kumar, bookshop manager
Larch House says the insert was found in 1,146 of 3,200 copies inspected so far, all from a numbered collector’s run. The company’s recall notice cites the loose marker as the reason for the return and replacement programme. It says it has not yet confirmed whether the extra pages were placed in the books at the printer or later in distribution.
A public split over the edition
Wels said in a video posted on Wednesday that she wrote the afterword and had agreed to its inclusion in copies sold directly to readers. “I never approved a concealed edition for bookshops,” she said, adding that she was “angry and embarrassed” that customers had been left to discover it themselves. Her representatives did not answer questions about the production process.
Ludvig Strøm, a production consultant interviewed by Austrian broadcaster Vale 8, said the extra pages appeared to have been printed on the same stock as the book’s main text. That does not establish who inserted them, he said, but makes an ordinary reader’s accidental addition unlikely. He has not inspected the printer’s production records.
Several major Austrian retailers have paused sales of the memoir while they wait for replacement copies. Margaret Godard, a spokesperson for Civic Lantern, said the group had not asked Wels to place its message in the book. “We support her right to speak, but readers should have been told what they were buying,” she said.
The affair has put pressure on a book marketed as a candid account of Wels’s career and private life. The actress, whose films have made her one of Austria’s most recognisable screen figures, has previously kept her political views out of promotional campaigns. Larch House says it has paused plans for a German-language reprint.
The publisher expects to give retailers a further update by 22 October and has offered refunds or replacement editions to buyers. The Austrian consumer office says it is checking the recall notice and the publisher’s customer information, but has not announced any enforcement action.
