La Breve y Maravillosa Vida de Oscar Wao (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao) is an adaptation based on Junot Diaz's novel of the same name. The title character is a self-described nerd from New Jersey who studies at Rutgers and dreams of becoming the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien, all while trying to escape the shadow of his Dominican mother. Standing in the way of his hopes is fuku, the curse that has haunted the Wao family across generations and the ocean between their ancestral Santo Domingo home and current home in the US.