Portrait of a Thief: A Novel

Written by Grace D. Li

Narrated by Eunice Wong and 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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Audio
• Release date: Apr 5, 2022
• ISBN: 9780593510957

Grace D. Li

Grace D. Li grew up in Houston, Texas and is a graduate of Duke University, where she studied biology and creative writing. She currently attends medical school at Stanford University. Portrait of a Thief is her debut novel.

Reviews for Portrait of a Thief

[delphimo_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Portrait of a Thief stands as the Community Read in Mecklenburg County. A very long book for a Community Read. Five main characters: Will, Irene, Daniel, Lily, and Alex reveal their fears and insecurities. Will draws the crew together to steal back lost Chinese treasures from the Old Summer Palace for a $50 million pay-out, if successful. Each thief will receive $10 million for a skill needed to aide in the heist. Five Chinese sculptures await the team in Denmark, France, England, Norway, and the United States. A huge point enters the picture: who owns priceless artwork and where should art be housed? Another point stressed relates to what each individual owes family. The novel explores personality, relationships, loyalty, love, and trust. Grace D Li composes a long, but interesting story of the roads open to each person.

[muddyboy · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Wow, was I disappointed with this novel. It was an Edgar Award finalist for best first mystery and is being developed by Netflix. I figure it is in part because it is politically correct pointing out how Western countries stole priceless art during colonialism. But, the story is beyond belief. Five naive over achieving Asian students will get ten million dollars each stealing specific art piece from major museums across the globe. The planning is dumb and the worst is when one of the girls wins a road race on the streets of Paris, France. Astoundingly stupid. The author writes the word heist so many time I wanted to scream.

[barlow304 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A rather contrived thriller which centers on the theft of bronze zodiac heads, first from the Old Summer Palace sacking in the 19th century, then from 5 museums around the world. The biggest problem with the book is the central concept: that a fabulously wealthy Chinese woman would hire 5 college students to execute the thefts when she could easily hire professionals.

The themes of the book center on the return of stolen art to its country of origin and the divided identities of members of the Chinese diaspora. These are worthy themes, but they needed a less improbable plot to develop them.

[mm_jones · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Portrait of a Thief a debut by Gracec D Li by Tiny Reparation Books.
Shades of Oceans Eleven with a serious side. The concepts of identity, dispora and colonialism all wonderfully woven into a tale about college students and an art heist. A surprising character study of growing up Chinese-American, of being goal-obsessed.
"What do you want to be remembered for?"

[ethel55_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

There was a little of everything in this--I got the heist story I wanted and the college age protagonists coming of age as well. The book is told via all five viewpoints. Will and Irene (siblings), Lily (roommate), Daniel (old friend) and Alex (former Bostonian working in Silicon Valley) All of them are chose by Will for the unique skills they will bring to the table. Will is the artist/art historian, with Daniel perhaps next in knowing the most about Summer Palace art, its' looting by invaders and how these pieces wind up in galleries around the world. Irene summed up what I had been thinking toward the end of the book, just how did they think this was all going to work out? It's not one heist, but five and patterns emerge quickly, including another group of thieves intent on reclaiming much of the Summer Palace art on their own. Definitely an engrossing read about cultural identity as well as their own identities as Chinese and Chinese-Americans.

[rmarcin-630843 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a novel about several young Chinese Americans who get involved in a plan to steal Chinese art and return the pieces to China for a huge payout. Will, a Harvard art history student, along with his sister, Irene, their family friend Daniel and a friend of Will's - Alex, plus Irene's roommate Lily.
The group travels to various locations around the world stealing priceless art.
While I understand that the team was extremely intelligent, I found it very difficult to believe that a group of 20-year olds were able to pull off these multiple heists.

[janarose1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

During the middle of a robbery at the museum where he works, a business card is thrust into Will Chen's hand. When he calls the number, he finds himself putting together a crew and traveling to Berlin for a once in a lifetime opportunity. The crew is offered 50 million dollars to steal five Chinese artifacts from museums around the world.

I had a hard time getting into this book. The characters felt extremely stereotypical. Just about every chapter had one character or another talking about their displacement and unease as a second generation immigrant. This in itself wasn't off-putting, but it became extremely repetitious. With some editing, this could have been a more exciting adventure, but instead I found myself growing bored. Overall, 2 out of 5 stars.

[bookappeal · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The backdrop is an international, college-aged, Oceans 11 with Chinese art but this novel is ultimately about the burden of expectations that the children of immigrants carry in America and how they find their own way. The art theft plotting is intricate, clever, and satisfying. But while each of the five main characters has a different backstory, they are all essentially dealing with the same personal crisis - what happens after college? Can they live out the expectations of their families and feel fulfilled? Their thoughts and feelings are so similar that their introspection becomes repetitive. Art is an important element of the narrative but the author includes so many descriptive passages involving light that it starts to feel like a drinking game. The overall tone of the dialogue is ethereal which seems out of place for a story that is, at least in part, a heist thriller involving college kids.

[black2lilly · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It starts of fast paced, characters getting introduced, heist getting set up, heist being executed, next heist and then, it ran out of steam.
The book is divided into three acts, and while the first one is a fun read and draws you in, the second one is a complete let down. The writing gets extremely repetitive, where there would have been a great opportunity to give all players more depth, it falls short there. It is always hard to have multiple main characters and doing each of them justice, but sadly that doesn't happened. Even though I understand why Li thought she had to do it, it got very annoying after the third time when it got mentioned that Will would graduate in May.
Everything what follows after the second heist feels on the one hand rushed and on the other hand too drawn out and I was short of not finishing it as I lost my interest (did you know, Will is graduating in May).
The book redeemed itself a bit in the third act, where finally the rest of the characters started to get some depth but again, not even enough. Yet on the other hand, it all felt again way too rushed.
The whole book read indeed more like a movie script, no wonder that netflix wants to produce it, as a book, it did not really engage me, maybe the movie version would though.
Oh btw, did you know that Will will graduate in May?

[ablachly_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Okay, this book is perfect. It manages to provide a really insightful commentary on colonialism, art, and Western museums along with the complexity of diaspora and identity, and... a heist out of all my heist movie watching dreams. And it's queer? I will be throwing this book at everyone I know.

[hccpsk · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I can see why Grace D. Li’s Portrait of a Thief has already been optioned by Hollywood — it’s a great story, with interesting characters in exotic locations. When Will Chen finds himself involved in a museum break-in, he jumps and gets his friends and family involved, too. Portrait is being touted as an Asian Ocean’s 11, and that is pretty close to accurate with a large cast of characters and much complicated heisting. Unfortunately, Li’s writing mostly misses the mark with painfully awkward dialogue, so many similes, metaphors, and other literary devices I actually yelled at my computer screen a few times. Midway through the book the writing evens out a bit, but for me it was a little too late. Readers who favor content over style will still enjoy Portrait of a Thief, and I will definitely go to the movie.