I Leave It Up to You - by Jinwoo Chong

Book Synopsis

From the award-winning author of Flux comes "an endearing novel about second chances" (The Washington Post), with wise insights into love, family, and the art of sushi.

"Wise and poignant [with] mouthwatering descriptions of food . . . I Leave It Up to You is about finding--or rediscovering--the people who make hardship worth enduring."--Bobby Finger, The New York Times Book Review

A coma can change a man, but the world Jack Jr. awakens to is one he barely recognizes. His advertising job is history, his Manhattan apartment is gone, and the love of his life has left him behind. He's been asleep for two years; with no one to turn to, he realizes it's been ten years since he last saw his family.

Lost and disoriented, he makes a reluctant homecoming back to the bustling Korean American enclave of Fort Lee, New Jersey; back into the waiting arms of his parents, who are operating under the illusion that he never left; and back to Joja, their ever-struggling sushi restaurant that he was set to inherit before he ran away from it all. As he steps back into the life he abandoned--learning his Appa's life lessons over crates of tuna on bleary-eyed 4 a.m. fish runs, doling out amberjack behind the omakase counter while his Umma tallies the night's pitiful number of customers, and sparring with his recovering alcoholic brother, James--he embraces new roles, too: that of romantic interest to the nurse who took care of him, and that of sage (but underqualified) uncle to his gangly teenage nephew.

There is value in the joyous rhythms of this once-abandoned life. But second chances are an even messier business than running a restaurant, and the lure of a self-determined path might, once again, prove too hard to resist.

Review Quotes

"Chong's endearing novel about second chances is a tender look at the power of redemption."--The Washington Post

"Wise and poignant . . . I Leave It Up to You is about finding--or rediscovering--the people who make the hardships worth enduring."--Bobby Finger, The New York Times Book Review

"I Leave It Up to You is funny and tender, with characters whose lives are satisfyingly messy. Jinwoo Chong is a writer for those of us who exist between cultures and identities."--Gabrielle Zevin, New York Times bestselling author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

"A remarkable portrait of an American family . . . compassionate and beautifully told."--Grace D. Li, New York Times bestselling author of Portrait of a Thief

"You won't forget this big-hearted, beautifully written book."--BookPage

"Jinwoo Chong is a master storyteller. A novel about second chances, the many threads of love that tie people together in the face of loss, and the maddening complexities of family devotion, this is a spectacular book."--Crystal Hana Kim, author of If You Leave Me and The Stone Home

"Sweet and satisfying without sacrificing bite, I Leave It Up to You achieves that which we cherish in our most favorite works: an unvarnished reflection of reality."--Mateo Askaripour, New York Times bestselling author of Black Buck

"Funny and wickedly observant with a cast of characters so endearing I laughed out loud and was moved to tears, I Leave It Up to You is a delicious meal of a book, with courses of drama, tragedy, and comedy. Jack Jr.'s efforts to separate himself from his raucous, loving, over-reaching Korean American immigrant family are rendered with brilliant finesse and beauty."--Jimin Han, author of The Apology

"Alive and boisterous and entirely profound . . . a riot and a tender exploration of (re)discovering your place in the world."--Bryan Washington, author of Family Meal

"By the end of I Leave It Up to You, Chong managed to pull off the impossible: He made me fall in love with New Jersey. His prose is funny, exuberant, and moving, and his characters are packed full of life in all of its spectacular dysfunction."--Grant Ginder, author of The People We Hate at the Wedding

"A spirited and deeply affecting story about love in all its forms, the chaos and complications of family, and how to pick yourself back up in the wake of loss . . . as pleasurable as a good conversation over an excellent meal."--Gina Chung, author of Sea Change

"I Leave It Up to You explores what it means to be healthy, to love, to rebuild a family in the aftermath of a bewildering tragedy. A tender novel of rebirth and repair . . . a delicious read."--Isle McElroy, author of People Collide

"Captures precisely that tragicomic feeling of suspended animation . . . [a] funny and big-hearted novel."--Rafael Frumkin, author of Confidence

"Versatile wunderkind Chong . . . deftly, poignantly, gloriously transforms family dysfunction into universal life lessons about how independence and autonomy don't have to mean giving up unconditional love, underscored with a ringing reminder to never take it for granted."--Booklist, starred review

About the Author

Jinwoo Chong is the author of the novel Flux, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway and VCU Cabell First Novel awards, a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice, and named a best book of the year by Esquire, GQ, and Cosmopolitan. His short stories and other work have appeared in The Southern Review, Guernica, The Rumpus, Literary Hub, Chicago Quarterly Review, and Electric Literature. He lives in New York City.