Fabulous Fiction Firsts #809 - The Caper Novel

Thu, 06/23/2022 - 9:40pm by muffy

Soon to be a Netflix series, Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li  (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook), a cinematic Ocean’s Eleven meets The Farewell , is inspired by the true instances of Chinese antiquities vanishing from Western museums and collections, originally pilfered from China by British and French forces during the Second Opium War.

Art History senior Will Chen witnesses a brazen smash-and-grab at Harvard’s Art Museum. In the chaos, Will pockets a jade figurine, a slight-of-hand noticed by one of the thieves who leaves behind a business card. On offer: Wang Yuling, China's youngest billionaire will pay $50 million if Will would “recover” five Chinese zodiac fountainheads, looted from Beijing’s Old Summer Place from museums across the world. 

On his team: A con artist (and Will’s younger sister): 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 (whose father is an FBI agent specializes in art crime) 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. Their meticulous planning pays off - their first heist, in Sweden, is a success but could they continue to count on their luck? 

"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)

BONUS FEATURE (and one of Entertainment Weekly's Best New Books of June)

Counterfeit : A Novel by Kirstin Chen (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook). For fans of Hustlers and How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, it’s an addictive tale about the high/low world of counterfeit luxury handbag.

Ava Wong, the quintessential model minority on the surface, is falling apart.  A Stanford grad, corporate attorney, married to a Harvard-trained surgeon and mother of a toddler, actually hates practicing law. Her husband Oliver is overworked and often absent while her son Henry’s tantrums push her to the breaking point. Enter Winnie Fang, Ave’s Stanford roommate who turns up unexpectedly after 20 years. The shy, awkward girl Ava once knew has been replaced with a confident woman of the world, dripping in luxury goods, and proposes an ingenious counterfeit scheme that involves importing near-exact replicas of luxury handbags, All she needs is a US citizen above suspicion, like Ave, to manage the business.  But when their spectacular success is threatened and Winnie vanishes, Ava is left to face the consequences. 

“Ava tells this story to a detective through her first-person perspective, explaining the whirlwind of events that led her into the mess. Chen's third novel is sly and subversive, an examination of motherhood and an incisive look at culture and class...A read-alike for Amelia Morris' Wildcat (2022), with a touch of crime.” (Booklist) 

 “A delightfully different caper novel with a Gone Girl–style plot twist.” (Kirkus Reviews)