Salman Rushdie writes off Kaavya

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Keywords: Salman Rushdie, Book

New York: Author Salman Rushdie is no stranger to controversies.

But as the outgoing President of the PEN American Center, he has been monitoring the controversy over 19-year-old Indian-American Kaavya Viswanathan's alleged plagiarism.

Rushdie says Viswanathan is "a victim of her own ambition."

"You know, I haven't seen the book, I've seen the passages that were compared between the two books. I must say I don't accept the idea that this could have been accidentally or innocently done. The passages are too many and the similarities are too extensive. And I'm sorry that this young girl, pushed by the needs of a publishing machine and, no doubt, by her own ambition should have fallen into this trap so early in her career. I hope she can recover from it," Rushdie said.

Rushdie has also made clear that he has little sympathy for the teenager and the publisher and author are equally to blame for the mess.

"Both are responsible. But I know when I write a book it's my name on the book so I stand or fall by what I sign. And so must she," Rushdie said.

Kaavaya who shot into infamy when her debut novel How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life, was found to have a striking similarity to two books by author Megan McCafferty Sloppy Firsts and Second Thoughts.

In fact, Viswanathan’s book had more than 40 passages similar to McCafferty’s two books.

The publishers of Opal Mehta have withdrawn the book.