We waited eleven years for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, the long-promised novel from Dominican-born New Yorker Junot Di­az. His debut, the short-story collection Drown, was as popular in Brooklyn Heights as Washington Heights, and the novel proved well worth the wait: An epic, semi-magical history of one pitiable overweight nerd and his Dominican-American family, it’s even truer to Diaz’s distinctive immigrant-nerd style than his long-ago breakthrough book. This is one author you’ll want to hear in person. — Boris Kachka

i will be going to this. this book was absolutely brilliant.