Harvard student's novel goes from hot to not even for sale

NEW YORK -- Rarely has an author succeeded, then failed, soquickly as Kaavya Viswanathan, the Harvard University sophomore whoacknowledged lifting material for her debut novel, How Opal Mehta GotKissed, Got Wild and Got a Life.

Just weeks after her book was released with a first printing of100,000 and a wave of favorable attention, publisher Little, Brownand Co. announced Thursday it would be pulled from store shelves andthat retailers had been asked to return unsold copies.

Viswanathan, 19, has apologized repeatedly to author MeganMcCafferty, saying she had read McCafferty's books voraciously inhigh school and unintentionally mimicked them.

But …