PORTRAIT OF A THIEF

Eunice Wong and Austin Ku deftly alternate narration of debut author Li's twisty melange of heist thriller, coming-of-age story, romance, colonization, and the repatriation of artwork. Five Chinese American young adults agree to steal several Chinese zodiac sculptures from five museums in exchange for a $50-million payment from a Chinese corporation. Wong, a gifted storyteller, sounds completely authentic as she portrays Lily, a drag-racing engineering student; Alex, an MIT dropout turned Silicon Valley software engineer; and Irene, a sly public policy major. Ku's characterizations of Irene's brother, Will, an art major at Harvard, and Daniel, a premed student whose father is a crack FBI art investigator, are thoughtful but could be less understated. M.J. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2022]