One insane heist, 5 unlikely people, and a story inspired by the true story of Chinese art vanishing from western museums. Ocean’s Eleven meets The Farewell, this was a brilliant story discussing how the history, how the art world, has dealt with the colonization of art as well as discussing issues of diaspora, and the complexity of the Chinese American Identity. Will Chen is a Harvard senior majoring in art history and sometimes an artist.. but what he really yearns for is something more.. and when the opportunity to partake in a heist to reclaim stolen Chinese artwork from Western Museums presents itself... he’s never wanted anything more. The next issue is putting together the perfect crew for the heist.. which consist of Irene Chene, his sister who is a public policy major at duke and the ultimate con woman, Daniel Liang, a thief who is also a premed student and the son of an FBI agent, Lily Wu, the getaway driver, an engineer major who finds herself most at peace when behind the wheel, and Alex Huang, a hacker/MIT drop out turned Silicon Valley software engineer. Each member of this crew has their own motivations and questions that must answer when doing this heists and consequences they will have to ask themselves they are willing to face, but together they just might be able to pull of the ultimate heist, make history, and get away with fifty million dollars. This was an exciting and just all around beautiful story. It had thoughtful commentary on interesting issues, and discussed the issue of diaspora and identity in a way that many of us can relate. Being an Asian-American who grew up with parents who had moved to America to start anew, I could relate to many of the pressures, the guilt, the wants and needs that these characters had. This was honestly just such a great read, I enjoyed how thrilling and fun the heist plans were and the execution of the overall heists, and getting to know each of these characters. Definitely pick it up!!

*Thanks Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton, Tiny Reparations Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*