An absolute treasure of a debut and a heart-wrenching love letter to Asian-Americans
—Amanda Khong, Bookish Brews
Bookish Brews Snapshot
Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li
Torn between earning fifty million dollars and losing everything they love, Will Chen and his friends risk it all in a worldwide museum heist to steal back priceless artifacts that were once stolen from China to return what colonialism once took to its rightful home.
🌏 East Asian Rep 😭 Emotional 💣 Heist 🧭 Immigrant Experience
- Genre: Contemporary
Book Review
Emotional, heart-wrenching, glamorous, anti-colonialist, beautiful, epic, priceless
Portrait of a Thief surprised me more than any other book that I’ve read this year. This book is absolutely stunning and I can’t believe it exists. The entire book is an absolute love letter to Asian-Americans. I was incredibly underprepared. I went into this book looking for a heist to steal back artifacts that had been stolen from China and came out feeling like I had reevaluated my entire identity as an Asian-American. Grace Li’s stunning debut novel is an absolute treasure and should not be missed by a single person.
Throughout history and even until today, museums have always displayed the spoils of war, conquest, and colonialism. A Chinese-American senior at Harvard, Will Chen, plans to steal priceless artifacts from museums around the world, artifacts initially stolen from China, and return them to their rightful home. He and his gang set out on their own Oceans Eleven worthy heist to make their mark in history and earn fifty million dollars, but the challenges they face force them to confront their own Chinese identity as they attempt to take back what colonialism has stolen.
This book touched my soul so deeply I can’t even begin to explain how important it is to me. Grace Li explores what it means to be Asian American, or Asian diaspora, in such a beautiful way. She explains the constant battle between rejecting your heritage and fighting so desperately to hang on to what you have left and it left a huge mark on my heart. The heist slowly changed from stealing back artifacts that were stolen from China to an exploration of how urgently the characters were fighting to steal back their Chinese heritage that was taken from them, as it is taken from so many of us in ways we never expected. Their desperate attempt to get China to love them back is all too familiar and all too heartbreaking. Being Asian-American we often are told that we are neither American enough nor Asian (insert your own heritage here) enough and these characters embody it so deeply.
As Asian-Americans, we are told far too often that the way that we retell our own stories is inaccurate to the canon and we are accepted into America with too many caveats to count. The way that the characters are fighting so hard to make a mark in Chinese history resonated so deeply with me that I found myself in near tears the entire book. I too desperately wish that my Asian heritage would love me back to the same degree that I desperately long for it. I too feel neither Asian nor American enough. I too have an inexplicable longing for a people I should be able to claim as mine. I hope that in this book people find the lost diasporic souls of their friends. I hope they find characters who feel as deeply as they do. I hope that people will read this and feel less alone just like I did.
I have never read a book that felt like it was reading into my soul in the same way that Portrait of a Thief did and I absolutely recommend it to every single person. This book is a stunning way to start to understand some of the Asian diaspora experience and I cannot wait to hold my copy in my hands. Thank you so much, Grace Li, this book spoke directly to my soul.
Book Club Questions
- How has your perspective on museums changed because of this book? Have you seen stolen art in a museum? What qualifies as stolen art?
- What did you learn about the Chinese diaspora experience in Portrait of a Thief? What was something you were surprised about?
- Who does art truly belong to? The artist, the country of origin, the colonial power? Who has a right to own it? What makes people believe that they own art? If they don’t own the art, how can they sell it? Purchase it? What structural powers are at play here?
- If you were a part of a museum heist, what role would you play and why? Guess your friends roles!
Bonus
Don’t miss out on reading this article about the real missing Chinese artifacts. Is China really looting art? Is the government involved? What if it isn’t connected? This article brings this story to life so much more, don’t miss it!
