Burned By Books

Jinwoo Chong, "Flux" (Melville House, 2023)


Listen Later

Four days before Christmas, 8-year-old Bo loses his mother in a tragic accident, 28-year-old Brandon loses his job after a hostile takeover of his big-media employer, and 48-year-old Blue, a key witness in a criminal trial against an infamous now-defunct tech startup, struggles to reconnect with his family.

So begins Jinwoo Chong's dazzling, time-bending debut that blends elements of neo-noir and speculative fiction as the lives of Bo, Brandon, and Blue begin to intersect, uncovering a vast network of secrets and an experimental technology that threatens to upend life itself. Intertwined with them is the saga of an iconic '80s detective show, Raider, whose star actor has imploded spectacularly after revelations of long-term, concealed abuse.

Flux is a haunting and sometimes shocking exploration of the cyclical nature of grief, of moving past trauma, and of the pervasive nature of whiteness within the development of Asian identity in America.

Jinwoo Chong is the author of the novel Flux, published March 21, 2023 in the US and UK from Melville House.,His work has appeared in The Southern ReviewThe RumpusLitHubChicago Quarterly Review, and Electric Literature. He received the Oran Robert Perry Burke Award for Fiction from The Southern Review and a special mention in the 2022 Pushcart Prize anthology. He received an MFA from Columbia University and is an editorial assistant at One Story.

Recommended Books:

  • Julia Bartz, Writing Retreat
  • Gina Chung, Sea Change

  • Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers.

    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    ...more
    View all episodesView all episodes
    Download on the App Store

    Burned By BooksBy New Books Network

    • 5
    • 5
    • 5
    • 5
    • 5

    5

    52 ratings


    More shows like Burned By Books

    View all
    The New Yorker: Fiction by WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

    The New Yorker: Fiction

    3,356 Listeners

    The Book Review by The New York Times

    The Book Review

    3,877 Listeners

    Otherppl with Brad Listi by Brad Listi

    Otherppl with Brad Listi

    522 Listeners

    Longform by Longform

    Longform

    1,744 Listeners

    The New Yorker: The Writer's Voice - New Fiction from The New Yorker by The New Yorker

    The New Yorker: The Writer's Voice - New Fiction from The New Yorker

    2,145 Listeners

    Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso by Lemonada Media

    Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso

    1,412 Listeners

    Pod Save America by Crooked Media

    Pod Save America

    87,163 Listeners

    The Paris Review by The Paris Review

    The Paris Review

    806 Listeners

    Totally Booked with Zibby by Zibby Owens

    Totally Booked with Zibby

    624 Listeners

    The Shit No One Tells You About Writing by Bianca Marais, Carly Watters and CeCe Lyra

    The Shit No One Tells You About Writing

    776 Listeners

    The Ezra Klein Show by New York Times Opinion

    The Ezra Klein Show

    16,152 Listeners

    Poured Over by Barnes & Noble

    Poured Over

    299 Listeners

    NPR's Book of the Day by NPR

    NPR's Book of the Day

    636 Listeners

    Writers on Writing by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett and Marrie Stone

    Writers on Writing

    80 Listeners

    Critics at Large | The New Yorker by The New Yorker

    Critics at Large | The New Yorker

    632 Listeners