Born in Victoria, British Columbia and raised in Victoria and Surrey, Novik now lives in Vancouver. Her debut novel, Conceit (Doubleday Canada, 2007) is about Pegge Donne, the daughter of the Metaphysical poet John Donne, and is set in 17th century London. Other fictional characters based on historical people are Donne's wife Ann More, the diarist Samuel Pepys, and the fisherman Izaak Walton.

Conceit won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and was long-listed for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. It was chosen as a Book of the Year by both The Globe and Mail and Quill & Quire and as a Canadian Book of the Year by Abebooks.

Novik belongs to the Vancouver writing group, SPiN, which includes Jen Sookfong Lee and June Hutton. She has also taught creative writing at Langara College.