‘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
‘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
‘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
‘Captures precisely that tragicomic feeling of suspended animation … [a] funny and big-hearted novel.’
Rafael Frumkin, author of Confidence
‘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
‘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
‘You won’t forget this big-hearted, beautifully written book.’
BookPage
