I Leave It Up to You

a novel
Jinwoo Chong

‘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

‘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

View all reviews

‘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 … a joyous and poignant tale that bubbles over with humour, heart, and heat.’

Gina Chung, author of Sea Change

‘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. Chong has made me a believer. I will follow his writing anywhere.’

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 favourite 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

‘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

‘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

‘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

‘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

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 sore neck, 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?

Bryan Washington, author of Family Meal

‘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

View all reviews

Grant Ginder, author of The People We Hate at the Wedding

Gina Chung, author of Sea Change

Crystal Hana Kim, author of If You Leave Me and The Stone Home

Mateo Askaripour, New York Times bestselling author of Black Buck

Jimin Han, author of The Apology

‘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

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

BUY EBOOK

Details

Format:Paperback

Size: 234mm × 153mm

Extent:320pp

ISBN (13):9781761381102

RRP:$35.00

Pub date:1 Apr 2025

Rights Held: UK & Commonwealth

High-res cover:Download Image

AWARDS

CATEGORIES / tags

AUTHOR

Jinwoo Chong

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.