The Writer’s Center presents a FREE virtual chat about the craft of fiction! We’re joined by Jinwoo Chong to discuss his “mind-bending” debut novel, Flux. Jinwoo is in conversation with Zach Powers, novelist and Artistic Director at The Writer’s Center.
RSVP below to receive login information (our virtual events are held via Zoom). FREE and open to the public, all times Eastern
We encourage you to order a copy of the book from your local, independent bookseller or online from Bookshop.org.
Jinwoo Chong received an MFA from Columbia University. His short stories have appeared in The Southern Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, and Salamander. He lives in New York. Flux is his debut novel.
About the Book
Four days before Christmas, 28-year-old Brandon loses his job after a hostile takeover of his big-media employer. His boss Gil, who he is sleeping with, shares this news along with a severance check. Elsewhere, eight-year-old Bo loses his mother in a tragic accident, and forty-eight-year-old Blue, a key witness in a criminal trial against an infamous tech startup, struggles to reconnect with his family.
So begins Flux, a dazzling, time-bending debut by rising literary star Jinwoo Chong that blends elements of neo-noir and speculative fiction. When Brandon gets a mysterious new job, he begins to suspect that his employers have inadvertently discovered time travel and are using it to cover up a string of violent crimes. As Brandon’s reality unravels, the lives of all three characters begin to intersect, and a vast network of secrets is uncovered. Intertwined through it all 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 from a powerful new voice in fiction.