Speaking of books and music, another Canadian author has provided a playlist for the American music blog Largehearted Boy. That blog’s “Book Notes” feature invites authors to list songs that were meaningful during the writing of their latest book, and one recent participant was Before I Wake author Robert J. Wiersema. Now Anosh Irani has done it, too, for his novel The Song of Kahunsha.

Irani selects only five tracks, four of which – including a Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan number – seem to originate from the subcontinent. “Most of these songs are in a language that you might not understand, but it does not matter because they will make your soul soar, they will make you feel like you are the last man or woman on earth,” writes the author. His number-one choice, though, is Leonard Cohen’s “Take This Waltz,” which made a huge impression on Irani when he was new to Canada:

I was in a taxi in North Vancouver, on a dreary rainy night about eight years ago. Being a recent immigrant, my mind was an attic for the mundane: phone bills, health insurance, student loans, social insurance number. Through the speakers, a voice came on. It grabbed me like Death itself, but a life-giving death, a death unsure of its own function. When the song got over, I asked the Persian taxi driver who the singer was. “Leo-nard Co-hen,” came the answer. His words and music ripped apart my phone bills and made me care even less about health insurance. I was not expecting Cohen, but he came anyway, unannounced, and took charge with his haunting, inspiring work.