Thank you to Net Galley and Dutton for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was one of my most anticipated books of the year! The heist premise was intriguing and exciting. Combined with the sleek cover and promise of scathing review of colonialism, I was very eager to pick this up.

The book follows a group of college students tasked with stealing back Chinese art from Western museums for the promise of not only correcting the record but $50 million. Because after all–history is told by the conquerors. As Will, a senior art history student at Harvard, pulls together his crew, we meet a con artist, a hacker, a thief and a getaway driver–each with a complicated relationship with diaspora, China and their identity as Chinese-Americans.

Each character brought a different lived experience and point of view to the book’s overall commentary on colonialism and the failures of how history is told in the modern world. This book’s biggest strength was Li’s beautiful and tangible descriptions of settings from Beijing to Boston to Paris and Durham. As a former student myself in the Durham-adjacent area (go heels), Li’s spot on depictions of North Carolina evoked a keen sense of nostalgia. I also greatly enjoyed the discussion of historical art as symbol of political power in the modern world.

And while this book was full of beautiful prose, complex characters and important, profound discussion, it did lack the excitement I was promised through the premise. Very little of this book focuses on the heist itself, but rather the potential impact of them on the geopolitical stage. Which isn't inherently a problem, but just not exactly what I was promised.

As the crew plans and executes the heists, we learn very little about how they attempt to go about it and somehow (despite having a google doc and openly texting about their plans) might have ever been able to get away with it. We are simply told that the heists happens, and you have to fully disconnect yourself from the reality to go along with it. The most exciting scenes were of Lily, the getaway driver, racing through the streets of Europe. I’d have loved to feel some of that adrenaline in the heists.

My only other critique is in the frequency of rotating perspectives. I am typically a huge fan of books with rotating perspectives, but in this case it sometimes made the story feel redundant. We often read the same events from multiple characters’ point of view rather than Li moving through the POVs to push the narrative forward.

Overall, I did greatly enjoy this book and highly recommend it, but be prepared for a lot less action than the premise suggests.

great heist story with amazing chracters, however the pacing was a bit too inconsistent and at times it got a bit repetitive for me

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Okay, let’s list some things I liked:

The premise: You read the synopsis and you immediately want to read the whole book. It’s an absolutely fantastic idea, and I was super excited to get a copy.

The cover: Is gorgeous. So slick, so stylish.

Portrayal of a sibling relationship: I always appreciate the inclusion of this kind of dynamic!
And now: Everything else.

This book kicks off with excitement, but only goes downhill from there. After the crew is put together and starts actually planning the heist (over Google Docs, which…gah), things become Unbearably Slow. Descriptions of the planning is also mostly limited to a discussion of how the crew is connecting with each other–almost not at all on the actual mechanics of the heists that are, y’know, supposedly the main point of this book.

With a premise like the one Portrait of a Thief has, you would think the ride would be compelling and exciting. It was not. Portrait of a Thief bounces between the perspectives of all five characters and yet does not manage to show an ounce of growth, development, or depth for any of them. The closest this book gets to that is with Daniel and his relationship with his father, but even that is left unexplored and glossed over at the end.

The heists themselves take up maybe 10% of the book. At most. They proceed swiftly with only vague descriptions for how the preparations were made and carried out, and where you might expect a slick sense of fun you are instead rushed through to the heist’s completion and just told that it happened. Don’t ask how.

The conclusion was frustrating and since the epilogue needed to be told from Every Single character’s perspective, the book continued to draaaaaag until the very last page.
Now, the writing itself was nice in a few instances throughout the book. But the addition of So Many descriptors and overwrought depictions of how the light fell across Beijing, across Paris, across Lily’s face, across Lily’s hair, how it streamed through the airplane window, through Alex’s apartment window, how it illuminated the art etc., etc. contributed to the slog reading this book was.

Ultimately, terribly disappointing. I was really looking forward to this one. 2/5

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.

This started off with such an interesting premise that it surprised me when it fell a bit flat. The research and matching of certain plot points seemed to lack editing and ultimately left the book a bit lackluster for me. The best parts were the traveling although they were glossed over. I could see this being a movie and all of these unknown like the research and the planning that should have been explicated better could be explained through a montage. I would recommend this if you liked Impostor Syndrome by Kathy Wang. Something in the two books reminded me of each other. Hope you have better luck!

Portrait of a Thief comes out next week on April 5, 2022 and you can purchase HERE.

How to enter a museum, to navigate around guards, security systems, everything that was designed to keep them out. How to retrieve the sculpture waiting for them in a glass case and beneath the sharp eye of a camera. How to leave a museum and a country without getting caught. How to build alibis, how to lie, how to do all the things that might make them criminals.

How to live with themselves if this all went wrong.

I read something that wasn't sci-fi or fantasy! Which should indicate how much I enjoyed "Portrait of a Thief" by Grace D. Li. If you have ever wondered why a museum has items of immense cultural value on display in countries they definitely didn't originate from you will like this story. Please blatantly rob the gift shop at the British Museum if you are ever there.

Will Chen is working as an assistant at an art museum when it is robbed. During the theft he swipes a piece of Chinese art that was stolen by the west, and one of the thieves plants a business card on him. Taking a leap he gets a crew together and they go after stealing back the Zodiac Fountainheads from the Old Summer Palace.

I found out about this book after reading an article about an art theft irl, for once the creepy internet algorithms did me a favor. So much of the history that has been beaten into me is the story from eurocentric povs, with a nice dash of obfuscation when it comes to its crimes. I did not know about the looting and razing of the Old Summer Palace until 2019. Once again proving World History was a fun title for a college course.

Reasons to read:
-Hell yea good heist story
-It takes place right now and touches on the difficulty of COVID19 in a really relatable way
-There is a POV for everyone
-You think museums should return things to cultures that ask for their stolen property back
-That spice though... 🔥
-Smart characters being consistently competent, love to see it

Cons:
-Now I hope museums get robbed or at least cave to social pressures and I don't know what to do with that energy.

I'm a white dude from Southern California, so I don't have any leg to stand on when it comes to speaking about the theme of diaspora and belonging to two places. But I can only imagine Grace's words hitting home for folks that have experienced it.

One Sentence Summary: When college senior Will Chen gets the chance to return art stolen from China, he doesn’t hesitate to form his crew: con artist Irene Chen, hacker Alex Huang, thief Daniel Liang, and getaway driver Lily Wu.

Overall
Portrait of a Thief is part heist and part Chinese American experience. It takes five college students from different Chinese American backgrounds and gives them the chance to steal five fountainheads stolen from the Old Summer Palace in Beijing for a wealthy Chinese CEO. While their motivations to take part were a bit on the flimsy side, I really enjoyed reading about their experiences and struggles, and, most of all, how they learned to work together. The relationships they formed were strong and beautiful. Mostly, though, I loved how this book made my Chinese American experience feel seen.

Extended Thoughts
It started with a business card dropped casually into Will Chen’s pocket while the Sackler Museum at Harvard was being robbed of Chinese art. An art history major in his last year, he’s given the chance to assemble a crew and steal five Chinese zodiac fountainheads that had been stolen from the Old Summer Palace in Beijing. Five heist, fifty million dollars. With the help of his younger sister Irene (the con artist), he pulls together Alex Huang (the hacker), Daniel Liang (the thief), and Lily Wu (the getaway driver). But they’re college students and one college dropout, and there’s another crew out there. And the FBI.

Portrait of a Thief stumbles and tumbles, and I tend to think that was the point. After all, it stars five early twenty-somethings in college (and one dropout) trying to steal from museums like the Met in NYC and Drottningholm Palace in Stockholm. They have no clue what they’re doing, but it’s life changing money. As a result, the heist plot felt flimsy to me, but I think the point was to give space to the Chinese American experience. It’s a wealthy Chinese CEO in Beijing who wants the artifacts and it’s Chinese American students who have been hired. As a novel that takes an intimate look at that experience, it deeply touched me.

I wasn’t drawn to Portrait of a Thief so much for the heist story as for the story of the Chinese American identity. So I read the heist story with little more than amusement. It was fun, but there weren’t a ton of details. It was much more fun watching these five students who don’t all know each other at the beginning learn to work together. I enjoyed the thrill they each experienced during their heists and really liked the growing camaraderie as the story progressed. From a collection of siblings and friends who don’t all know each other, they form their own family, their crew, a group that will get together throughout their lives because they know each other and their secrets. While each chapter is told from a different perspective and had a healthy focus on their lives outside of the heists, I found my favorite parts were when they were all together, when they could let their masks drop, when they could be honest.

But I really read this because of the focus on the Chinese American experience. Being Chinese American myself, their struggles of belonging to neither world really resonated with me. In China, they’re too American. In America, they’re too Chinese. And then there are the family expectations, the parental pressure, but also their parents holding onto that American Dream, the one where their children can find success. It puts Will, Irene, Alex, Daniel, and Lily in difficult places. But I loved that their experiences were all different from each other. The stereotypical insane pressure to perform well and become doctors wasn’t there. Instead, their stories, their experiences are all different, and I really appreciated that difference. For the first time, I read Chinese American experiences that were nearer to mine, and I can’t say just how much it meant to me to be felt and seen.

The characters were amazing, but also weirdly stuck into molds. The book description never hid the fact that the characters adhered to the stereotypes: the leader, the con artist, the thief, the hacker, the getaway driver. And they all played their roles to perfection. Maybe a little too well, but I did like how some of it bled together now and then. What really drew me in to them were their experiences, their dreams, their struggles while projecting that cool, collected Asian mask. I grew up learning how to make sure my behavior reflected well on my family, and I could see that in Will, Irene, Alex, Daniel, and Lily. The pressure to perform, to make one’s family proud, is high, and yet, with the exception of Daniel, they’re all American-born. That struggle of trying to find your place, of trying to find your dreams while making your parents proud, well, that’s something I could relate to. I loved that they each had their own wishes and dreams, and that some of them were, actually, kind of lost while pretending to have it all together. Identity is a huge piece of this book, who they are and who they want to be.

Portrait of a Thief, though, sometimes made me feel like I was walking into some kind of warp whenever I picked it up. As a heist story, I expected a more thrilling reading experience, one that crisp and cut and laser focused. But it’s not. Maybe it’s because they’re in their earlier twenties and have no clue what they’re doing. Maybe it’s because it’s centered on art that the prose felt like brushstrokes. Maybe it’s that it’s called Portrait of a Thief. It had an interesting literary feel to the words, the phrases, that softened the edges, that made the story blur a bit. It was an experience I struggled with at the beginning, but crafting a life and a future is like a work of art, so, for me, it all worked well together. While the main story is the heists, the writing style continually brought me back to the Chinese American experience.

What I enjoyed most were actually found in the heist story. There were a couple of nice twists that weren’t really ground breaking or Earth shattering, but made the story a little bit more fun to read. I especially enjoyed the one at the end since I couldn’t quite puzzle out how they could possibly pull of five heists across Europe and in the US. It boggled my mind a little how these college students could think they could pull it off. Then again, they’re young and probably retain that adolescent idea that they’re capable of doing anything.

Portrait of a Thief is one half a heist story and one half a story of identity. The heist story was fun and I really enjoyed watching the five of them come together and grate at each other. There’s also some light romance that snuck in, but watching all of them together as they worked to figure out what to do and how to do it were my favorite parts. I really appreciated the different Chinese American experiences they each had, and I most loved that they each struggled to find their place, to figure out who and what they were. Their motivations to take part in the heists were probably the weakest part, but I really enjoyed reading about their lives.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

Ah…disappointment my old friend. It appears we meet again.

This is not a heist book, or perhaps more accurately it should not have been a heist book. It attempts to give us a sort of introspective look at diaspora and Chinese American identity, yet throws in a heist plot that truly did not need to be there. The combination felt dissonant to me. I think this book would have benefited from sticking to one thing and doing it well, rather than trying to do too much and failing.

The main cast themselves were underwhelming. It didn't feel like I knew any of them well enough to really care about them. Nor did any of them demonstrate a level of intelligence that would have me thinking they could reasonably pull off a masterful heist. I honestly spent so much of my time asking why in the world a multibillion-dollar Chinese company would put their faith in these amateur college students. Their heist plans were a joke. Also, how is it a bunch of Ivy League students, one of whom is a computer engineer and the other who works in tech, do not have the foresight to consider a museum with millions to billions of dollars worth in art would have their security footage backed up on another server? Like I'm being told these kids are bright and brilliant, but I'm not seeing it.

This book could have been a thought-provoking look into Asian American identity, diving into how we see ourselves versus how the world sees us and how the disconnect between the two can sometimes leave people feeling lost. It could have been about a found family.

Instead, we get this odd hodgepodge of ideas. I could probably go into detail about my issue with some of the other ideas presented, but I've seen a couple of reviewers have already touched upon those and done so far more eloquently than I could hope to so I'm going to quit while I'm ahead.

Essentially this book is a jack of all trades, master of none.

3.5, rounded up. I love a good heist novel, and a heist centered around reclaiming art stolen by colonists is even more satisfying. The story offers a bit of background into how all of the characters meet but then wastes no time setting up the first major museum heist. The actual act, however, requires some suspension of disbelief; there's a smattering of inconsistencies and a lack of setup (or, rather, description of the setup) that left me confused. In terms of exploring identity and being part of a diaspora, though, this book shines.

Please more heist books! This one is the story of 5 Chinese-American students who are roped into returning Chinese pieces of art to their homeland. I really enjoyed the dynamic between the students and their reflections on different experiences of growing up Chinese-American. There were a few flaws with the plot, but overall I really enjoyed this book.

4/5

A mysterious art theft strikes a match when the thieves leave behind their card for Harvard Senior Will Chen, an art history student working part-time at the Sackler Museum. The perfect student, artist, and son, Will has always strived to curate every aspect of his life, yet the mask begins to slip when he finds himself entangled in an impossible plot. At the behest of his mysterious benefactor, Will becomes the leader of a grand heist to steal back five Chinese artifacts stolen from Bejing centuries ago, scattered around the world. With fifty million dollars on the line, Will assembles a crew of his closest friends, all with something to gain if they should succeed and lose should they fail. As each of the crew members wrestle with their own complicated relationship with China, the chance to take back a piece of what was stolen long ago is too great to pass up. Willing to risk it all, they may just find a missing piece of themselves in the process.

Portrait of a Thief is a book that really stole the show with what it was trying to impart to its readers. Debut author Grace D. Li writes effortlessly, baring the deepest parts of her soul to all those experiencing the long-term effects of colonialism and the diaspora. Through an impossible heist with stakes beyond imagine, Li illuminates the complexity of Chinese identity against a profound yearning that lives inside those that have had to surrender a part of themselves in growing up elsewhere. With a catching comparison to Ocean’s Eleven, Portrait of a Thief brings the action up close and center, alongside an unlikely group of friends deciding to take something back for themselves. Out of all the aspects of this debut, one of the most poignant parts is the multitude of identities that are explored within. Although all of the heist members are Chinese American, their views on the mission are incredibly divided as they had all found their identity in different ways. Each of the characters had their own complex relationship with China, which was drawn out with each heist and created an interesting conflict between the group. These relationships were a stark contrast to the conversation happening around the heist and colonization, which I really appreciated as a reader. The diaspora affects all people differently, and that was really evident through the individual relationships and unique connections with China. Rather than have the crew get along, I liked that there was some conflict, both on an identity level and the heist itself. Also the little rivals to lovers storyline we were given made my heart soar. With her debut, Grace D. Li has created a novel equal parts thrilling, and critical. Portrait of a Thief examines the diverse parts of Chinese identity, diaspora, and the ways in which an identity can be in conflict, through a group of people determined to leave their mark on a flawed world.

This was one of my most expected reads of the year! And I was pleasantly happy with what I read.

I found the writting and the characters to be perfect, Grace D. Li does a great job of creating such an interesting plot. The story itself was very cool, but I felt at a few moments it fell flat a bit. I think where this story truly shines, is in its characters.

this is hands down the best heist novel i’ve ever read. a lovable cast of characters and a firecracker of a plot combine to make a book i will spend the next few months waiting for a physical copy to arrive.

I picked up Grace D Li’s Portrait Of A Thief expecting a fast-paced, exciting crime thriller with characters who felt close enough to me in the Asian American immigrant experience to be almost instinctively relatable. What I got instead was a slow burn look into the minds of five relatively privileged Chinese American college students – all around the age of twenty-one – as they grapple round and round with identity and belonging and moral rectitude, especially as it pertains to cultural heritage, in this case centered around five bronze fountainheads looted from Beijing’s Old Summer Palace two centuries ago and dispersed since among five different American and European museums.

Will Chen is a Harvard student working part-time at Boston’s Sackler Museum when he witnesses the audacious theft of almost two dozen pieces of Chinese art. One of the thieves slips a business card into his pocket as they’re making a getaway, leading Will, already dissatisfied with what he’s learned about imperialism as an art history major, to contemplate his own complicity in institutional theft hiding behind the mask of cultural education. Worse, the detective in charge of the case reveals subtle nativist tendencies while questioning him:

QUOTE
It might have been a small thing, to be called Chinese instead of Chinese American, to have this detective who spoke in a Boston accent look at him as if this place, this museum, this <i>art</i> didn’t belong to him, but–it didn’t feel like a small thing. Not when he was at Harvard, this place of dreams, and he was so close to everything he had ever wanted.

It was his senior year, and the whole world felt on the verge of cracking open.

“I’ve told you everything I know,” he said, “and I know my rights. Next time you want to accuse me of something, go through my lawyer.”
END QUOTE

After this interaction, he almost impulsively calls the number on the business card. No one answers, but shortly afterwards he receives a text containing a link to an Air China reservation under his name for five first-class tickets to Beijing. Knowing that this is an invitation for him to put together a crew, he recruits first his beautiful younger sister Irene, who always gets her way by dint of charm and poise. Next, he contacts a former romantic interest turned friend, software engineer Alex Huang, who’s happy to help him with favors in cyberspace.

Irene points him in the direction of her college roommate Lily Wu, whose penchant for illegal street racing speaks to her craving for thrills. Finally, the siblings recruit their childhood friend Daniel Liang, the son of the FBI’s foremost expert on Chinese art theft. Together, they fly to Beijing, where a monied young socialite offers them fifty million dollars for securing the return of the five fountainheads.

Each member of the crew has their own reasons for agreeing. Daniel nurtures an adolescent resentment towards his dad, born from their shared grief at losing Daniel’s mother. Lily is consumed by a burning if unformed desire for escape, while Alex craves a different life from the one expected of her, though like Lily she isn’t quite sure what kind. Will has romantic ideas of China and his own place in history. And complicated, perpetually right Irene has, perhaps, the most burdensome role of all, to keep her impractical older brother out of trouble:

QUOTE
Even though she knew how much he loved art, a part of her had always been waiting for him to realize that his responsibilities were worth more than his dreams. He was the eldest, after all. But if he would not do it–if he would not think of the expectations placed on him from their parents, their grandparents, all those in China who saw them as the American Dream–Irene would. She would do what he wouldn’t, and while she was at it, she would make sure she did it better.

Irene Chen had never failed.

She could not afford to.
END QUOTE

As these five young people cross continents and plan their heists, they unexpectedly build deeper relationships and run up against greater obstacles than they’d ever anticipated. Will they manage to carry out the steals of the century, or will their names go down in history as cautionary tales against theft, no matter how noble the reasoning?

Ms Li aims for elegance in her depiction of the psychology of crime and the morality of contemporary art curation. It’s clear that the interior struggles of these five representatives of the Chinese diaspora, whether first- or third-generation American, are more important than the actual thefts themselves, which are carried out about as well as you’d expect by a bunch of young amateurs whose idea of studying crime involves repeatedly watching movies like Ocean’s Eleven and The Fast And The Furious. The plot twist at the end has interesting things to say about colonialism and theft, even if the book overall doesn’t hang together as well as the author likely envisioned it. Perhaps the Netflix series currently in the works will sharpen the material. I’m definitely here for continuing, nuanced representation of the multitudes that form the Asian American experience.

I feel so fortunate to have read this book. There's a lot I could say, but I'll keep it simple. First, the writing. I adored the prose throughout PORTRAIT OF A THIEF. It was whimsical and yet so grounded and spoke to an intangible grief that feels raw and unending. Li's style won't be for everyone, but it echoed some of my favorite authors and books and so I enjoyed it very much. Second, the discussion of colonialism and art and the ways in which empires interact was so so so fascinating. It's a complicated history that I felt Li negotiated well. As someone who is not well versed in art and only understands international policy, I appreciated that.

I am not someone who can speak to the experience of the characters and communities in this book adequately. I've never known the dissonance of belonging to a diaspora or the unique negotiation of identity that the characters in PORTRAIT OF A THIEF felt. I won't comment on that because I don't want to make small any of the discussion and meaning woven throughout this book. What I can say is that the characters were so unique and interesting, each approaching the heists, their individual histories, and the way they interacted with China differently. They were difficult and wonderful and I can honestly say that I liked them all.

Also, I now understand this title and give the name a 10/10.

I was so ready to love this book. The premise sounded incredible - a heist story where the characters’ goal is to steal Chinese artifacts from Western museums. Based on the synapsis alone, I was pretty much positive that this book would end up being one of my 2022 favorites. Sadly, that wasn’t the case.

That is not to say that I hated it completely. I loved the way this book focused on the diaspora and the feelings connected to being a child of immigrants. The musings on family, identity and heritage were fascinating, and I enjoyed seeing the characters come to their own conclusions about what those topics meant to them.

What didn’t work for me was the rest. The characters were one dimensional - each of them had one characteristic that their entire personality was built on. The writing was repetitive - if at around the 30% mark I catch myself rolling my eyes when I read for the nth time that a character went to a particular university, that’s bad news. I knew that I would have to suspend my disbelief at least a little bit reading a heist story, but the plot was just too unbelievable. Who would hire a bunch of twenty-somethings to pull off not one, but five heists? Who would communicate their plans via Zoom and Whatsapp? And who would watch Ocean’s Eleven movies to prepare their heist? All together, it was just too much for me.

TLDR: Portrait of a Thief unfortunately didn’t live up to my expectations. Despite the interesting premise and the fascinating cultural background, I found this book to be quite boring.

Oh my goodness, what a stunning book! I will be pressing PORTRAIT OF A THIEF into the hands of everyone I meet. I love heist books, and this art-heist book does not disappoint! A group of college-aged kids are tasked with retrieving looted Chinese art from a series of Western museums. What seems an impossible task turns out to maybe not be as impossible, after all. With lots of luck on their side and some careful planning, the crew sets out to pull off the greatest art heist of the century. Throughout the story, every one of Grace D. Li’s characters explore a different facet of Chinese American diaspora in deep and thoughtful ways. These moments are complex, emotional, and so beautifully done that I was left breathless. In fact, the entire novel is beautifully written, with immersive scenes that made me feel as if I were in the room watching it all unfold. And, of course, I rooted for the characters to pull off the heists! This book is a must-read for fans of Ocean’s Eleven and The Fast and the Furious (Lily is one of my favorite characters in this book!), and anyone who wants to see looted art returned to their original homelands. I can't wait to read what Grace D. Li writes next.

I was so excited about this book because the premise sounded very intriguing, so I’m sad to say I was disappointed. I enjoyed reading about the characters’ Chinese-American culture and how it impacted their decision to return stolen artifacts back to where they belong in China.
Which is interesting the first time, but they each explain their decisions at the end of every single chapter, creating a very repetitive tone to the story. Even the exciting parts fall short by the end, and the first heist was the most interesting, after that, they fell short. The characters also never faced real consequences to raise the stakes; it was too steady and monotonous throughout.

In a way, these characters were older beyond their years. They all, for the most part, felt like they had old souls. Each one had different burdens weighing them down. Each one also had different reasons for joining the team. The author wrote the characters’ thoughts and words in a way that had the potential to sound melodramatic but ended up being essential and altogether fitting.

“Art could be beauty, but it was also power. Look, it demanded, and don’t turn away.”

I love Will’s pretentiousness and his self-righteousness. I could never fully understand his struggle with identity as Chinese-American, but for an instant the author made me understand. I loved Lily’s relentless confidence and her loyalty. She may not have held my attention the most as an individual, but I really admired the way she connected with and supported the others. I loved Irene’s perfectness—even with the other characters pointing it out, I never once bristled at it. Irene’s way of going about life had me wishing I could do it half as well. I loved Daniel’s desire to stay true to himself, even as he struggled with supporting his friends and trying (somewhat) to overcome the distance between himself and his father. At one point I found myself just reflecting on the growth he showed both in character and in his relationships with others. I loved Alex’s sense of responsibility and her perseverance in the face of challenges. As she said multiple times, she was not a hacker, but she also never let her team down.

“Art belongs to the creator,” Will said, his voice soft, “not the conqueror.”

Although the book was centered around a heist, it would be misguided to say it was not character driven. The characters drove the conflict—both external and internal—as well as the progress in overcoming it. Their youthfulness shown through in opportune times making this book somewhat of a coming-of-age story. These characters ingratiated themselves to me and I found myself struggling with the desire to find out what happened next instead of being content with the calmer scenes that focused more on the characters as individuals.

“All these years, and he still dreamed in Chinese, closed his eyes and saw Beijing. Even if he wanted to, he could not let go of the past.”

From start to finish, this book was a joy to read. I made so many highlights throughout. The author often had me reflecting on the ethics/morals of stolen art, the conflict of national identity, and the longing to belong. It was fast paced plot-wise, but the character development never once felt rushed. Truly, one of the best books I’ve read this year.

A beautiful story about diaspora, home, love and loss, imperialism, and reclaiming histories to build futures.
Portrait of a Thief is the story of 5 college students planning a heist to reclaim art stolen from China through imperialism. While they are planning these great heists from some of the world's "greatest" museums, the true story lies in their own growth and connection as they navigate their own challenging feelings about a sense of belonging.
This story has:
- childhood crushes and unbreakable friendships
- realistic family dynamics
- how to say 'I love you' through actions instead of words
- college student struggles + post graduation dread
- sapphics
- pop culture references
- art appreciation
- love to so many different places (Duke, Beijing, Boston, the Bay area, Chinatown)

All of the characters are very REAL. They are flawed, they grow, and they challenge each other and make mistakes and argue, but they are filled with love and dreams that keep them afloat and keep readers rooting for their unlikely success.

While this book is not an edge-of-your-seat heist adventure, it is filled with intrigue and politics and a crew you won't want to leave behind when you finish reading.