I Leave It Up to You:
A Novel
Overview
A hilarious, heartwarming rom-com that proves that sometimes home is exactly where you belong.
Jack Jr woke up from a two-year coma with a pounding headache, a brand new ex-fiancé, and the distinct feeling he’d missed something big. Like, global pandemic big. Reluctantly returning to New Jersey, and a kitchen job at the sushi restaurant his family runs, he finds himself suddenly dependent on his dysfunctional and very estranged Asian American family: headstrong fishmonger father, Jack Sr; his recovering alcoholic brother, James; and his rebellious teenage nephew, Juno. And then there's Emil Cuddy, Jack Jr’s former nurse, who may offer a glimmer of hope, but who’s struggling with complicated feelings of his own …
Can Jack Jr navigate the family chaos, rebuild his life, and maybe even find love (or at least a decent date) in a world that’s moved on without him?
Details
- Format
- Size
- Extent
- ISBN
- RRP
- Pub date
- Rights held
- Other rights
- Hardback
- 216mm x 135mm
- 320 pages
- 9781915590947
- GBP£16.99
- 10 April 2025
- UK & Commonwealth (ex. Can)
- Sterling Lord Literistic
Categories
Praise
‘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.’
‘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.’
About the Author
Jinwoo Chong is the author of the novel Flux, a New York Times Editors' Choice that was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel and longlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, and named a best book of 2023 by Esquire, Apple Books, HuffPost, GQ, Cosmopolitan, and Goodreads. His short stories and other work have appeared widely in print and online. I Leave It Up to You is his second novel.
