TEHRAN – A Persian translation of Dominican-American writer Junot Diaz’s bestselling novel “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” has recently been published by Khazeh Publications.

The book has been translated into Persian by Nader Qeblei. 

Set in New Jersey where Diaz was raised, the novel chronicles both the life of Oscar De León, an overweight Dominican boy, who is obsessed with science fiction and fantasy novels.

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 Fuku—the curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and, above all, ill-starred love. 

Diaz immerses the readers in the tumultuous life of Oscar and the history of the family at large, rendering with genuine warmth and dazzling energy, humor, and insight the Dominican-American experience, and, ultimately, the endless human capacity to persevere in the face of heartbreak and loss.
 
A true literary triumph, “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” confirms Diaz as one of the best and most exciting voices of the time.

Diaz was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New Jersey. He is the author of the critically acclaimed book “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao”, which won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, “This Is How You Lose Her”, a New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist, and a debut picture book, “Islandborn”. 

He is the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, PEN/Malamud Award, Dayton Literary Peace Prize, Guggenheim Fellowship, and PEN/O. Henry Award. 

A graduate of Rutgers College, Diaz is currently the fiction editor at Boston Review and the Rudge and Nancy Allen Professor of Writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Photo: Front cover of the Persian translation of Junot Diaz’s “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao”.

RM/YAW