His first book, 1996's awesome story collection Drown, was written in a hybrid of English and Spanish, set in the Dominican Republic and New Jersey, and began with two guys kicking the shit out of a boy whose face had been eaten off by a pig. Now, at last, years late, Díaz's second book has been published. Michiko Kakutani calls The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao "so original it can only be described as Mario Vargas Llosa meets Star Trek meets David Foster Wallace meets Kanye West." (Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main St, 624-6600. 7:30 pm, free.)