The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Book for February 2016
Group 3

is set in New Jersey in the United States, where Díaz was raised. It tells a multigenerational story, dealing explicitly with the Dominican Republic experience under dictator Rafael Trujillo. The book chronicles the life of Oscar De León, an overweight Dominican boy growing up in Paterson, New Jersey who is obsessed with science fiction and fantasy novels, falling in love, and a curse that has plagued his family for generations.

Narrated by multiple characters, the novel incorporates a significant amount of Spanglish and neologisms, as well as references to fantasy and science fiction films and books. Through its overarching theme of the fukú curse, it additionally contains elements of magical realism. The novel was first published in 2007 and went on to win several awards in 2008, including the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

About the Author
Junot Diaz

is a Dominican American writer, creative writing professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and fiction editor at Boston Review. Central to Díaz's work is the immigrant experience. He was born in Santo Domingo December 31, 1968 and came to the United States in 1974.