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Title details for Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li - Available

Portrait of a Thief

A Novel

by Grace D. Li
Eunice Wong
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
An Edgar Award Nominee for Best First Novel
Longlisted for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize
Named a New York Times Best Crime Novel of 2022
Named A Most Anticipated Book of 2022 by *Marie Claire* *Washington Post* *Vulture* *NBC News*  *Buzzfeed* *Veranda* *PopSugar* *Paste* *The Millions* *Bustle* *Crimereads* Goodreads* *Bookbub* *Boston.com* and more!

"The thefts are engaging and surprising, and the narrative brims with international intrigue. Li, however, has delivered more than a straight thriller here, especially in the parts that depict the despair Will and his pals feel at being displaced, overlooked, underestimated, and discriminated against. This is as much a novel as a reckoning."
—New York Times Book Review
Ocean's Eleven meets The Farewell in Portrait of a Thief, a lush, lyrical heist novel inspired by the true story of Chinese art vanishing from Western museums; about diaspora, the colonization of art, and the complexity of the Chinese American identity
History is told by the conquerors. Across the Western world, museums display the spoils of war, of conquest, of colonialism: priceless pieces of art looted from other countries, kept even now. 
Will Chen plans to steal them back.
A senior at Harvard, Will fits comfortably in his carefully curated roles: a perfect student, an art history major and sometimes artist, the eldest son who has always been his parents' American Dream. But when a mysterious Chinese benefactor reaches out with an impossible—and illegal—job offer, Will finds himself something else as well: the leader of a heist to steal back five priceless Chinese sculptures, looted from Beijing centuries ago. 
His crew is every heist archetype one can imag­ine—or at least, the closest he can get. A con artist: Irene Chen, a public policy major at Duke who can talk her way out of anything. A thief: Daniel Liang, a premed student with steady hands just as capable of lockpicking as suturing. A getaway driver: Lily Wu, an engineering major who races cars in her free time. A hacker: Alex Huang, an MIT dropout turned Silicon Valley software engineer. Each member of his crew has their own complicated relationship with China and the identity they've cultivated as Chinese Americans, but when Will asks, none of them can turn him down. 
Because if they succeed? They earn fifty million dollars—and a chance to make history. But if they fail, it will mean not just the loss of everything they've dreamed for themselves but yet another thwarted at­tempt to take back what colonialism has stolen.
Equal parts beautiful, thoughtful, and thrilling, Portrait of a Thief is a cultural heist and an examination of Chinese American identity, as well as a necessary cri­tique of the lingering effects of colonialism.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 5, 2022

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593510964
      • File size: 326793 KB
      • Duration: 11:20:49

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Eunice Wong and Austin Ku deftly alternate narration of debut author Li's twisty melange of heist thriller, coming-of-age story, romance, colonization, and the repatriation of artwork. Five Chinese American young adults agree to steal several Chinese zodiac sculptures from five museums in exchange for a $50-million payment from a Chinese corporation. Wong, a gifted storyteller, sounds completely authentic as she portrays Lily, a drag-racing engineering student; Alex, an MIT dropout turned Silicon Valley software engineer; and Irene, a sly public policy major. Ku's characterizations of Irene's brother, Will, an art major at Harvard, and Daniel, a premed student whose father is a crack FBI art investigator, are thoughtful but could be less understated. M.J. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      September 1, 2022

      Li's debut, a literary heist novel involving looted Chinese art, will undoubtedly be compared to Crazy Rich Asians, as both novels play with genre in order to explore the difficulty of juggling multiple cultural identities, and specifically, what it means to be Chinese American. Another strong central theme is the ethics of modern museums displaying stolen art. The novel alternates between frantic heist sequences and slower, but still gripping, character moments. The audiobook, narrated by Eunice Wong and Austin Ku, splits the point-of-view characters by gender, which mostly works, though it sometimes makes the chapters run together if a narrator reads several in a row. Further, since the characters frequently interact with each other, listeners will have to learn two sets of voices for the character. Still, both narrators are a pleasure to listen to, bringing each character's struggles to life. Their performance is vital to keeping the introspective parts of the story as interesting as the heist sections. VERDICT Listeners may finish this book feeling as if they've learned plenty, but so palatably wrapped in cleverly delicious plotting.--Matthew Galloway

      Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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