The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz. Oscar is an underdog for whom you will root and weep, even while you laugh out the other side of your mouth, and his tale is one of the best novels with footnotes you’ll ever read. The asides will take you from the gritty sidewalks of Paterson, New Jersey, to Middle Earth; and from the troubled and beautiful Dominican Republic to the Death Star.
Born in Dominican Republic and raised in New Jersey, Junot Diaz is became one of our most exciting contemporary authors by exercising his storyteller’s power to soothe and heal. He learned to love writing in childhood, composing long letters to amuse his hospitalized brother. Over the years, he refined his natural storytelling muscle to the point of winning a Pulitzer Prize with Oscar Wao, a Cuppa Pulp favorite.