I Leave It Up To You

I Leave It Up to You by JinWoo Chong

From the award-winning author of Flux comes a captivating novel about love, family, and sushi that asks: What if you could return to a pivotal moment, wiser and ready to forge a new path?

Jack Jr. awakens from a two-year coma to find his life in ruins. His advertising career is over, his Manhattan apartment is gone, and the woman he loved has moved on. With no one to turn to, he discovers it's been a decade since he last saw his family. Struggling to adjust to a world that feels foreign, Jack reluctantly returns to his hometown of Fort Lee, New Jersey, to the Korean American enclave where he grew up. There, his parents, unaware he ever left, welcome him back, as does Joja, the sushi restaurant he once planned to inherit before walking away from it all.

As Jack immerses himself in the life he abandoned—working with his father on early-morning fish runs, serving sushi behind the counter, and clashing with his recovering alcoholic brother—he also steps into new roles: romantic interest to the nurse who cared for him, and an underqualified uncle to his teenage nephew.

While rediscovering the rhythms of his old life, Jack finds there’s beauty in second chances, but also complexity. The temptation of a self-determined path may once again threaten to pull him away from those who need him most.

A humorous and heartfelt exploration of second chances, I Leave It Up to You is a poignant story about love, loss, and the messy business of rebuilding a life once it’s fallen apart.