Drown

By Junot Díaz

Categories: Literature & Fiction

Junot Díaz's first book, a collection of ten stories published in 1996, moves between the Dominican Republic and the immigrant neighborhoods of New Jersey. Most are narrated by Yunior, a boy and then a young man whose father has left for America, as he and his brother grow up amid poverty, drugs and family secrets, and try to find their place in a new country.

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• Barack Obama: “I think Lahiri's books, I think Díaz's books, do speak to a very particular contemporary immigration experience. But also this combination of — that I think is universal — longing for this better place, but also feeling displaced and looking backwards at the same time. I think in that sense, their novels are directly connected to a lot of American literature.”