The fifty greatest debut novels since 1950

At Flavorwire, Emily Temple tagged the fifty greatest debut novels since 1950.  One title on the list:

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz (2007)

Half comedy, half tragedy, all delicious, complex storytelling and a titular character that’s hard to forget.

Read about the other books on the list.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao also appears among Niall Williams's top ten bookworms' tales, Chrissie Gruebel's nine best last lines in literature, Alexia Nader's nine favorite books about unhappy families, Jami Attenberg's top six books with overweight protagonists, Brooke Hauser's six top books about immigrants, Sara Gruen's six favorite books, Paste magazine's list of the ten best debut novels of the decade (2000-2009), and The Millions' best books of fiction of the millenium. The novel is one of Matthew Kaminski's five favorite novels about immigrants in America and is a book that made a difference to Zoë Saldana.

The Page 99 Test: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

--Marshal Zeringue