I Leave It Up to You

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-fiancée, 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?

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

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.
—Bobby Finger, The New York Times

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