NEW YORK: Little, Brown and Company, publishers of the controversial novel, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life by Harvard student Kaavya Viswanathan, have decided to withdraw the book permanently and cancel the deal for a second novel.

The decision comes in the wake of new charges of plagiarism and copying surfacing against the young Indian-American author.

Michael Pietsch, senior vice president of Little, Brown and Company, said the company will not be publishing a revised edition of the book, nor will it publish the second book under contract.

The firm, however, did not clarify whether it will demand the return of $500,000 it had offered as advance to Viswanathan under the two-book deal.

News reports Tuesday said there were other portions in the book, which resembled narratives in another book, Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella. Some of the phrasing and structure of several passages in the two novels are nearly identical, the reports said, though the plots are different.
The Harvard Crimson, which originally exposed the copying, said Tuesday, the novel also contained passages similar to a novel by Meg Cabot, The Princess Diaries.

Earlier, Viswanathan was charged with copying from two novels by Megan F McCafferty, titled Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings.

Following the exposures, Viswanathan had apologized for similarities between her book and the works of McCafferty, describing the similarities as unintentional and promising to drop them in future prints. The publishers had withdrawn the book in the wake of the revelations.

Crown Publishing Group, publishers of McCafferty’s books, said more than 40 passages of Viswanathan’s book had identical language or common scenes and dialogue structure to that of McCafferty’s books.

Meanwhile, The Record newspaper of Bergen county, at which Viswanathan was an intern during 2003-2004, said it is investigating some of the articles she wrote as part of her assignment. The paper’s editor said he will hire a service to vet the dozen or so light features she had written.