Toronto-based fiction writer Ibi Kaslik has today received a Trillium Book Award nomination, for her second novel, The Angel Riots, released in March 2008. DRIVEN’s editorial personnel are unabashed fans of the book; it was an honour when Kaslik agreed to interview 2008 Giller Prize-winning author Joseph Boyden for our December issue (read it here: pp38-42).
The Trillium Book Award is Ontario’s leading literary award; the program is currently celebrating its 22nd year. Past winners include a who’s-who of internationally acclaimed authors requiring no introduction. (Aw, heck: Atwood, Findley, Ondaatje, etc.) This year’s winners — in four categories: one English and one French, each for fiction and poetry — will be announced at a gala on June 16. Kaslik is competing with five other writers, including Nino Ricci and Pasha Malla, for the $20,000 English-language fiction prize.
In other Can-do literary news, Alice Munroe just won the Man Booker International Prize; yesterday, she became the first Canadian to receive the honour. This is the third year of the Man Booker International, thus all the more reason to celebrate such an early recognition (and well deserved, Ms. Munroe!) of our country’s contribution to international literature.
About The Angel Riots (via Penguin.ca): Acclaimed author Ibi Kaslik takes readers backstage with up-and-coming Montreal band “The Angel Riots” on its American tour. The band’s story unfolds through the eyes of Jim, a small-town violin prodigy who struggles with her past as well as her present, and Rize, an emotionally charged trombone player who is stuck playing sidekick to his best friend, charismatic lead singer Jules. As the band’s popularity mounts, the pressures of road-life and success begin to complicate relationships and The Angel Riots’ chaotic world threatens to implode. Dark and dazzling, this novel will firmly establish Kaslik’s reputation as a literary talent.
A DRIVEN-selected excerpt from The Angel Riots (pp47-48):
In the studio she runs her hands over speakers as if she is securing the site. She touches beer bottles, cables, adaptor cords, the drum kit, and the amps before the band begins to play. Then she sits on the floor and looks at her hands throughout rehearsal. Rize clutches his fists between songs, thinking about how he has to touch all those things again to undo the spell she’s cast on the equipment. Sensing Rize’s discomfort, Kit gets up in the middle of a number, stretches her long body out, and waves goodbye. He hears her boots knocking down all three flights of the studio’s stairs. He loosens his grip on his horn and decides that, in about two hours, he will begin drinking in earnest. Don’t leave me alone with this song. With the memory of your warm hair. In this cold room with one low light bulb and two thin walls. Today, I am afraid.
Ibi Kaslik author photo by Daniel Cianfarra
