On-sale 3.4.25 from Ballantine / Random House (US), 4.10.25 from Scribe (UK & Commonwealth)
From the award-winning author of Flux comes a dazzling novel about love, family, and the art of sushi that asks: What if you could return to the point of a fateful choice, wiser than before, and find the courage to forge a new path?
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 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 AM 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 male nurse who took care of him throughout, 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.
Why do we run from those we love, and why do we still love those who run from us? A highly entertaining and poignant story about second chances and self-discovery, I Leave It Up to You navigates loss, love, and the absurdity of finding one’s footing after the ground gives way.
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***A March Pick for Allstora / Eric’s Very Gay Book Club
***A Top 3 Pick for CBS New York’s Book Club
***Featured in: The New York Times // The Washington Post // Goodreads // LitHub // Book Riot // Shelf Awareness // Rainbow Crate // Books are Magic // Our Culture // Dear Reader // BookPage // Library Journal // Fresh Fiction // The Book Enthusiast // Book Talk // Professional Book Nerds // LGBTQ Reads
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“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
“Maybe I’ve been waiting my whole life for a novel about a Korean sushi chef in Fort Lee, New Jersey? 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
“Exuberant and emotional, hilarious and full of heart, Jinwoo Chong's I Leave It Up to You is alive and boisterous and entirely profound. Chong's prose is ambitious and emotional, rendering questions of love, family, queerness, and connection with empathy and delight. I Leave It Up to You is wise and surprising, irresistible and insightful, a riot and a tender exploration of (re)discovering your place in the world.” — Bryan Washington, author of Family Meal and Memorial
“You won’t forget this big-hearted, beautifully written book.” — BookPage
“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
“Chong expertly captures [a] family’s complicated dynamics and ratchets up the tension as they finally break the silence about the past. It’s a satisfying drama.”—Publishers Weekly
“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. At its core is a question: what do we do when fate disrupts our precious plans? With a perfect balance of sincerity and levity, Jinwoo Chong guides us through an enchanting study of how time shapes us all, inspiring us to see those we thought we knew, especially ourselves, anew. A tender romp that hits you right in the heart.” — Mateo Askaripour, New York Times bestselling author of Black Buck and This Great Hemisphere
“Jinwoo Chong is a master storyteller. I LEAVE IT UP TO YOU is both riotously funny and achingly tender. 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. Chong has made me a believer; I will follow his writing anywhere.” — Crystal Hana Kim, author of The Stone Home and If You Leave Me
"By the end of I Leave It Up To You, Jinwoo 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. This is a novel that's as much about coming home as it is about rediscovering what home can be. It's a story about all the messy permutations of love, and queerness, and family, and sushi, told with tremendous heart." — Grant Ginder, author of The People We Hate at the Wedding
“Prepare to be utterly charmed—Jinwoo Chong’s I Leave It Up To You is 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, Chong’s latest is a joyous and poignant tale that bubbles over with humor, heart, and heat.” — Gina Chung, author of Sea Change and Green Frog
“I Leave It Up to You is both a remarkable portrait of an American family and a moving examination of what it takes to remake a life. Tender, compassionate, and beautifully told.” — Grace D. Li, New York Times bestselling author of Portrait of a Thief
“Funny and wickedly observant with a cast of characters so endearing I laughed out loud and was moved to tears, Jinwoo Chong’s 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
“Jinwoo Chong’s I Leave It Up to You explores what is means to be healthy, to love, to rebuild a family in the aftermath of a bewildering tragedy. Chong has written a tender novel of rebirth and repair. A delicious read.” — Isle McElroy, author of People Collide
"There is a sense in which we all went to sleep during the pandemic and woke up years later, surprised to encounter a planet still spinning on its axis. Jinwoo Chong captures precisely that tragicomic feeling of suspended animation in this funny and big-hearted novel, which is as much about returning to life as it is about returning home and – perhaps most crucially – returning to oneself." — Rafael Frumkin, author of Confidence
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Cover design by Michael Morris // One World / Penguin Random House