Books: Junot Díaz

The Dominican-born author ("Drown") nabbed a Pulitzer this month for "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao," his debut novel about a "ghetto nerd" striving to be the next J.R.R. Tolkien. His list:

My Five Most Important Books

1. " Beloved " by Toni Morrison. You can't understand the Americas without this novel about the haunting that is our past.

2. " Texaco " by Patrick Chamoiseau. The Caribbean masterpiece: it inspired nearly all of my first novel's literary experiments.

3. " Ceremony " by Leslie Marmon Silko. A profound survival story that becomes an act of healing in itself.

4. " Poison River " by Beto Hernandez. I have trouble describing how awesome this thing is: weird, sexy, tender, cruel and hopeful.

5. " Woman Warrior " by Maxine Hong Kingston. For immigrant writers, which in the end all of us are, this memoir is the Alpha.

A Book You Always Return To: Samuel R. Delany's "Dhalgren," which best captures that late '60s eruption that has shaped so much of what we call the Now.

A Book You Hope Parents Will Read To Their Kids: Richard Adams's "Watership Down," which is about the very thing kids dream of: that something small can still be a hero.

© 2008