Portrait of a thief

HISTORY IS told BY THE CONQUERORS . Across the Western world, museums display the spoils of war, of conquest, of colonialism: priceless pieces of art looted from other countries, kept even now. Will Chen plans to steal them back. A sénior at Harvard, Will fits comfortably in his carefully curated roles: a perfect stu- dent, an art history major and sometimes artist, the eldest son who has always been his parents' American Dream. But when a mysterious Chínese benefactor reaches out with an impossible—and illegal—job oífer, Will finds himself the leader of a heist to steal back five priceless Chínese sculptures, looted from Beijing centuries ago. His crew is every heist archetype one can imagine—or at least, the closest he can get. A con artist: Irene Chen, a public policy major at Duke who can talk her way out of any- thing. A thief: Daniel Liang, a premed with steady hands 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. If they succeed? They earn fifty million dollars—and a chance to make history. But if they fail, it will mean not just the loss of everything they've dreamed for themselves but yet another thwarted attempt to take back what colonialism has stolen.