The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Dominican and American novelist, born 1968. Won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2008.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a 2007 novel by Junot Díaz. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2008.
In magical realism, family saga
On 3 of the 13 lists it was eligible for.
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At a glance
- Author
- Junot Díaz
- First published
- 2007
- Length
- 352 pages (UK paperback)
- Awards
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner, 2008
- Genre
- Literary fiction, Migration and identity, Family saga, Magical realism
Is The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao worth reading?
3 of the 13 best-of lists it could have made include it, among them the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and The 100 best books of the 21st century (The New York Times).
| List | Place | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (winners and finalists) (Columbia University, 2008) | Winner | See the list |
| The 100 best books of the 21st century (The New York Times, 2024) | No. 11 | See the list |
| The Great American Read (PBS, 2018) | Listed | See the list |
Best edition of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
The edition we link to is the Faber & Faber paperback (2009), 352 pages.
- Publisher
- Faber & Faber (paperback, 2009)
- Pages
- 352
- ISBN
- 9780571239733
How critics, prizes and readers rate The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Prize juries rate it most highly: it earned 33% of the points available on prize lists, against 20% on readers' and booksellers' lists and 17% on critics' lists.
Share of the available points it earned on each kind of list it was eligible for. How the scores work