The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

The book chronicles the life of Oscar de León, a Dominican-American nerd growing up in Paterson, New Jersey, who dreams of becoming the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien and finding love. Interspersed with the Dominican Republic's history under the Trujillo dictatorship and narrated with a mix of English and Spanish, the story weaves together Oscar's tragicomic life with the curses and histories of his family.