He finished elementary school in Rab, attended the Classical gymnasium in Split, then graduated in Sušak.
During World War II he joined the Yugoslav Partisans, which he described in his autobiographical essays Digresije and Protimbe (2003).
He gained the attention of critics and the public by publishing his autobiographical novel Izgubljeni zavičaj (English: Lost homeland) (1955), in which he dealt with his childhood on a lonely island.
Novak follows the same thematic and poetic line in his short novel Izvanbrodski dnevnik (English: Outboard Diary) published in 1977.
Protimbe is one of the greatest works of Croatian autobiographical prose,[citation needed] rich with reminiscences and associations on youth, political and social life in SFR Yugoslavia, on the writer's experiences during the Croatian War of Independence, and on subsequent changes politically and socially.