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 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?
Details
- Format
- Size
- Extent
- ISBN
- RRP
- Pub date
- Rights held
- Other rights
- Paperback
- 234mm x 153mm
- 320 pages
- 9781761381102
- AUD$35.00
- 1 April 2025
- UK & Commonwealth (ex. Can)
- Sterling Lord Literistic
Categories
Praise
‘Modern life, especially since the pandemic, feels like a cascade of increasingly miserable tragedies. I Leave It Up to You is about finding — or rediscovering — the people who make the hardships worth enduring. More than once exhausted characters say, “We are all just trying to stay alive.” Among their heaviest burdens are their memories of the past, but how lucky they are to wake up each morning with the chance to forge a new future.’
‘Chong’s endearing novel about second chances is a tender look at the power of redemption.’
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.
