Junot Díaz

Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. From his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his old-world mother and rebellious sister, Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the fukú--the curse that has haunted Oscar's family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents,...

"Lola was just a baby when her family left the Island, so when she has to draw it for a school assignment, she asks her family, friends, and neighbors about their memories of her homeland ... and in the process, comes up with a new way of understanding her own heritage"-- Provided by publisher.

"Así es como la pierdes es un libro sobre mujeres que quitan el sentido y sobre el amor y el ardor. Y sobre la traición porque a veces traicionamos lo que más queremos, y también es un libro sobre el suplicio que pasamos después--los ruegos, las lágrimas, la sensación de estar atravesado un campo de minas--para intentar recuperar lo que perdimos. Aquello que creíamos que no queríamos, que no nos importaba. Estos cuentos nos enseñan las leyes...

Stories set in the Dominican Republic and in New Jersey. In Ysrael, a boy is disfigured by a pig, No Face is on his trip to America to undergo plastic surgery, and How to Date is on the art of dating interracially.

Oscar is a disastrously overweight Dominican from the ghetto in New Jersey. He dreams of becoming a writer and finding love, but he may never get what he wants thanks to the Fukú, an ancient curse that has haunted his family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and ill-starred love. Oscar, still dreaming of his first real kiss, is only its most recent victim--until he decides to be its last. Also included is the short...

A collection of letters--to ancestors, to children five generations from now, to strangers in grocery lines, to any and all who feel weary and discouraged--written by award-winning novelists, poets, political thinkers, and activists.

"Hector Santinio is the youngest son of Alejo and Mercedes, who moved to New York from Cuba in the mid-1940s. The family of four shares their modest apartment with extended relatives in Harlem, where homesickness and nostalgia are dispelled by nights of dancing and raucous parties. But life's realities are nevertheless harsh in the Santinio family's adoptive land. When Mercedes takes Hector and his brother to visit Cuba, to better know her culture,...

Collects forty short stories published between 1915 and 2015, from writers that include Ernest Hemingway, John Updike, and Alice Munro that exemplify their era and stand the test of time.

A compilation of twenty-four American short stories by authors such as Carolyn Cooke, Leonard Michaels, Clyde Edgerton, and Tobias Wolff. Includes a list of 100 additional notable stories from 1996.