Georgia writer's first novel adds to rising reputation

Whitesburg —- Sandra Novack calls herself a recluse, and it's easy to see why, living as she does on the outskirts of tiny, rural Whitesburg, a long hour-and-a-half drive southwest of Atlanta in Carroll County.

But on the Internet, she's anything but reclusive. She has a snazzy Web site, a chatty weblog, a MySpace and a Facebook account. From them, one can learn a lot, including:

> She has an octopus tattoo on her back.

> Her guilty pleasures include bad horror movies, twirling her hair and Vicks VapoRub.

> She's neurotic. (A self-description, and it's tough to disagree.)

> Most important, her debut novel, "Precious," has been racking up strong advance reviews. Publishers Weekly calls it "lyrical and finely crafted," and Booklist's starred review says it's "dramatic, elegantly rendered."

Novack, 36, had been writing short stories for several years and getting them published in prestigious, but not always very high-paying, literary journals.

"I kept being runner-up in all these [short story] competitions —- runner-up, runner-up," she said in her rapid-fire, stream-of-consciousness way. "And everyone kept saying, 'You ought to write a novel.' And I didn't want to write a novel. I was like, 'No, I'm a short-story writer.'

"Then I thought, OK, maybe I'll try to write a novel."

And she discovered she liked writing novels more than short stories. Random House bought "Precious" based on 50 pages Novack showed her agent, and made it a two-book deal.

"Precious," which arrives in bookstores Tuesday, is loosely inspired by bits of Novack's childhood. When Novack was 7 years old, her teenage sister Carole ran away from home and never returned. (The novel is dedicated to Carole.)

"I don't look at it as autobiography, but I think a writer's first work is based on something from them," she notes.

"Although it's inspired by events in my life, it's fictionalized."

Suffused with grief and an unsettling, coolly observed nostalgia, "Precious" is set in 1978 in a Pennsylvania Everyburb where the Kisch family is rapidly unraveling.

Mom Natalia has deserted the family and run off with a lover; angry high-schooler Eva is doing drugs and having sex with a teacher in the back of his van; young Sissy's best friend has disappeared and is feared dead; and dad Frank clenches his fists in impotent rage over it all.

"I think I picked the '70s —- particularly 1978 —- because it was a time I remember myself as innocent," she said.

As "Precious" is Novack's big launch as a mass-market author, she's been obsessing over every detail, including the cover, which depicts a shadowy girl on the edge of a swimming pool, and which she loves.

"It really, really resonated with me," she said, reminding her a bit of her sister. "You don't want something that looks too chick lit. And if it looks too literary it looks like too much of a downer, too."

Novack grew up blue-collar in Pennsylvania and put herself through college, including earning a master of fine arts degree. She eventually settled in Whitesburg five years ago because it was near West Georgia University, where her husband, Phil, a paleontologist, teaches geology.

She has complicated feelings toward her adopted rural Southern surroundings, which have sometimes felt like an awkward fit to her.

But she is also setting her second novel, "Resurrection Fern," in a fictionalized version of Carroll County, and said, "You can't write about a place until you figure out what you admire or respect or love in it."

FICTION

"Precious" by Sandra Novack; Random House; $25

MEET THE AUTHOR

Sandra Novack reads and signs her first novel, "Precious," in a series of appearances:

> Noon March 4. Carrollton Public Library, 710 Rome St. 770-836-6711

> 7 p.m. March 5. Blue Elephant Book Shop, 2091 N, Decatur Road, Decatur. 404-728-8955