Book

Portrait of a thief : a novel

Li, Grace D., author

Overview

\"Ocean's Eleven meets The Farewell in this 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 pre-med 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\"-- Provided by publisher.

• Publisher: Tiny Reparations Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
• Subject: Art, Chinese Fiction. / Art thefts Fiction. / Cultural property Fiction. / College students Fiction. / Chinese diaspora Fiction. / Chinese Americans Fiction. / Art chinois Romans, nouvelles, etc. / Vol d'objets d'art Romans, nouvelles, etc. / Étudiants Romans, nouvelles, etc. / Chinois Pays étrangers Romans, nouvelles, etc. / Américains d'origine chinoise Romans, nouvelles, etc. / Art, Chinese / Art thefts / Chinese Americans / Chinese diaspora / College students / Cultural property
• ISBN: 9780593186060, 0593186060

Item info:

1 item available

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Holdings :

Call Number	Copies	Material	Location
PS3612.I136 LI,	1	BOOK	AUTOSTORE