Portrait of a Thief

A Novel

By: Grace D. Li

Narrated by: Eunice Wong, Austin Ku

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.

©2022 Grace D. Li (P)2022 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“A number of heist and con artist novels published this year grappled with larger socioeconomic and racial injustice. The best and most entertaining of these was Grace D. Li’s debut, Portrait of a Thief, which juxtaposes thrilling international antiquities heists against a layered examination of what it is to be displaced, overlooked and underestimated.”
—New York Times, Best Crime Novels of 2022

"A heist caper...that turns on breakneck action, fast cars and a thoughtful exploration of Western colonialism and the complexities of Chinese diaspora identities."
—Los Angeles Times

"Beneath its glitzy European museum settings, late-night street races, sexual tensions and a plot involving an enigmatic Chinese billionaire, Grace D. Li’s debut art-heist novel, Portrait of a Thief, ...wrestles with some weighty questions about cultural repatriation and the legacy of colonial crimes."
—San Francisco Chronicle

Well paced and good character development

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I usually like a good whodunit best, but this book was very well paced, held my interest and I cared about the characters. Very cool story and a twist at the end! You won’t be disappointed if you choose to listen to this book!

I hope they make this book into a movie.

The book is slow but steady. But very much wins the race! A good listen indeed.

GOOD!

A fun time, but I felt like the narrator could have been more enthusiastic

Great narration

Story line was meh. Some things I really liked, some I did not. Easy listen.

An implausible heist story

I never really connected with the story. The heist and the outcome seem a little implausible. Especially the end where Daniel was rewarded with his picture in the Sackler museum!

It was ok

I tried to return the book part way through but for some reason couldn’t so I persevered. Character development was great and the story had a lot of potential. I liked the way things are resolved (no spoilers). For me it lacked action but definitely had the element of deep friendships which I love in a book.

Beautiful

I loved this book! I enjoyed the story, the writing, the relationships between the figures, and the ending. I highly recommend this book.

So much potential

This story and concept are super interesting! I love the idea of a college student heist. The author made each of the five main characters interesting and represent five different Chinese American experiences. HOWEVER, the execution was lacking. Several times I felt like I was listening to a first draft. A lot of the internal musings of the main characters were incredibly receptive and “told” me a lot that could have been “shown” to me in a more interesting way. I found myself editing the writing in my head while listening. “It had been ten years” and “after ten years” to describe the relationship between three characters got old in its repetition. I honestly hope she does a revised edition! I would read it. Also would make a great movie with some cleaned up dialogue and a medium that would force you to cut the annoying repetitive musings about being almost done with college and not knowing what comes next.

Decent mystery

Not really a thriller or comparable to Ocean's, but a varying-person perspective mystery. The time went by fast.

Surprising climax ending

Such a page-turner that get me hooked from the beginning. The book has all the expected excitements and suspensions. Yet, there are more. The second generation of Chinese immigrants’ struggle to fit in and searching for their positions is vividly leap out of the pages. Then, there comes the climax ending, logical and a complete surprise at the same time. Brilliant.