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The 2008 Tournament of Books was presented by powells.com, and that year’s Rooster went to The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz, who had this to say about the win:

“I’m beyond humbled. This book took forever and broke my heart nonstop—it’s deeply gratifying that it has moved anybody at all. It’s a little strange to imagine poor Oscar fighting anyone in a tournament so you made the impossible happen. Thanks to everybody who supported any and all of these books and thanks to the Tournament for doing something so hilariously odd in support of literature. So do I get a T-shirt with that supercool rooster on it? He’s bad-ass.”