Category: General Fiction, LGBT
Language: EnglishKeywords: Asian Literature Family Queer
Written by Jinwoo Chong
Read by Daniel K. Isaac
Format: M4B
Bitrate: 128 Kbps
Unabridged
From the award-winning author of Flux comes âan endearing novel about second chancesâ (The Washington Post), with wise insights into love, family, and the art of sushi.
âWise and poignant [with] mouthwatering descriptions of food . . . I Leave It Up to You is about findingâor rediscoveringâthe people who make hardship worth enduring.ââBobby Finger, The New York Times Book Review
A coma can change a man, but the world Jack Jr. awakens to is one he barely recognizes. His advertising job is history, his Manhattan apartment is gone, and the love of his life has left him behind. Heâs been asleep for two years; with no one to turn to, he realizes itâs been ten years since he last saw his family.
Lost and disoriented, he makes a reluctant homecoming back to the bustling Korean American enclave of Fort Lee, New Jersey; back into the waiting arms of his parents, who are operating under the illusion that he never left; and back to Joja, their ever-struggling sushi restaurant that he was set to inherit before he ran away from it all. As he steps back into the life he abandonedâlearning his Appaâs life lessons over crates of tuna on bleary-eyed 4 a.m. fish runs, doling out amberjack behind the omakase counter while his Umma tallies the nightâs pitiful number of customers, and sparring with his recovering alcoholic brother, Jamesâhe embraces new roles, too: that of romantic interest to the nurse who took care of him, and that of sage (but underqualified) uncle to his gangly teenage nephew.
There is value in the joyous rhythms of this once-abandoned life. But second chances are an even messier business than running a restaurant, and the lure of a self-determined path might, once again, prove too hard to resist.
Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
Release date: 03-04-25
From the award-winning author of Flux comes âan endearing novel about second chancesâ (The Washington Post), with wise insights into love, family, and the art of sushi.
âWise and poignant [with] mouthwatering descriptions of food . . . I Leave It Up to You is about findingâor rediscoveringâthe people who make hardship worth enduring.ââBobby Finger, The New York Times Book Review
A coma can change a man, but the world Jack Jr. awakens to is one he barely recognizes. His advertising job is history, his Manhattan apartment is gone, and the love of his life has left him behind. Heâs been asleep for two years; with no one to turn to, he realizes itâs been ten years since he last saw his family.
Lost and disoriented, he makes a reluctant homecoming back to the bustling Korean American enclave of Fort Lee, New Jersey; back into the waiting arms of his parents, who are operating under the illusion that he never left; and back to Joja, their ever-struggling sushi restaurant that he was set to inherit before he ran away from it all. As he steps back into the life he abandonedâlearning his Appaâs life lessons over crates of tuna on bleary-eyed 4 a.m. fish runs, doling out amberjack behind the omakase counter while his Umma tallies the nightâs pitiful number of customers, and sparring with his recovering alcoholic brother, Jamesâhe embraces new roles, too: that of romantic interest to the nurse who took care of him, and that of sage (but underqualified) uncle to his gangly teenage nephew.
There is value in the joyous rhythms of this once-abandoned life. But second chances are an even messier business than running a restaurant, and the lure of a self-determined path might, once again, prove too hard to resist.
Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
Release date: 03-04-25