Unintentional, my foot

Harvard Novelist Says Copying Was Unintentional - New York Times

The more I think about this the more it bothers me. Whatever Ms. Viswanathan may say about the borrowing of language being unintentional, too many sections are taken practically verbatim. I can see a phrase or two that may may have stayed in her head and she used, but this is pretty blatant.

The other interesting part is this:

Ms. Walsh said that she put Ms. Viswanathan in touch with a book packaging
company, 17th Street Productions (now Alloy Entertainment), but that the plot
and writing of "Opal" were "1,000 percent hers."
Alloy, which referred questions to Little, Brown, holds the copyright to "Opal" with Ms. Viswanathan.

A "book packaging company" that shares the copyright with the author? Sounds like they might be as much to blame.

I hope that the Little, Brown sues Ms. Viswanathan for representing the work as hers when it was not. I hope they make a very visible effort to right the situation. An apology is not enough