The Angel Riots

Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Day). That's what the Broken Social Scene tells us anyway. Granted, this song is honouring indie-rock legends Pavement, but it honours another as well. Her name is Ibi Kaslik, and she's contemporary Hungarian-Canadian novelist and journalist. Besides her being generally awesome, and having a great taste in friends, she's also quite the literary talent; her debut novel, Skinny, topped out on the New York Time's best sellers list for two consecutive weeks last year.

She also happens to have been buddies with some of the best in the Canadian music scene since high school, including Emily Haines of Metric, Amy Millan of Stars, and Kevin Drew of the BSS. And her friends give her some kind due and proper. As if it weren't exciting enough to be part of the title on Broken Social Scene's eponymous album, she also lent vocals on Stars' album Set Yourself On Fire, as well as her quite poetic quotation on the album sleeve.

Riveting is part of Kaslik's life, when it comes to the music world, and now she's getting directly involved... fictionally. From toting Broken Social Scene's gear to writing novels, now Kaslik has immersed herself into the world of modern indie rock in her latest novel, The Angel Riots. All about an up-and-coming collective out of Montréal, on their journey from obscurity to notoriety. Though she has mentioned that we shouldn't be looking for specific references to Broken Social Scene between the pages, she does assure that the text is, "...definitely based on a world I know." Maybe not the biography of the Canadian collective some were hoping for, but definitely something worthy of your intent reading.

Now we have our chance to honour Ibi Kaslik ourselves. First, you can grab a copy of The Angel Riots right over here from Penguin Book publishing. Then, you can wander to the bookstore, the library, or to Amazon.com to get a copy of Kaslik's freshman debut, Skinny. Speaking as a novelist myself, this comes highly recommended. While you busy yourself with the reading of contemporary fiction, put some music on! Listen to a little bit of Broken Social Scene, Stars, Feist, Metric and Jason Collett (among many more). Finally, you can catch a feature article on Ibi Kaslik by Found In The Margins, a wonderful website all about literature on neat people. All above definitely a great investment.