This novel has been snapped up for development by Netflix, so be sure to read it now. It has a cinematic feel, a mashup of the Ocean’s Eleven movie, Fast & Furious movies, and The Farewell. We have five Chinese American over-achieving students at the best schools (Harvard, Duke, MIT, UCLA), two are seniors, two are juniors, and one dropped out junior year to work at Google as a software engineer. Two are brother and sister, two were best friends growing up, two are roommates and best friends, two briefly dated. Will is an artist, turned art history major, his sister Irene majors in public policy and is adept at always getting what she wants, Lily is a mechanical engineer with a gift for engines and racing, Daniel is a future surgeon and can pick any lock, and Alex is a software engineer with a gift for code writing. All are beautiful, and wildly intelligent. All share conflicted feelings about their Chinese heritage and its place in their lives. All feel the burden of the need to succeed for their families’ sacrifices to help them get this far in life. How will they reconcile these internal conflicts?

The answer is to engineer a series of art heists. When Will is present during a heist of Chinese art at Harvard’s Sadler Museum where he interns, he picks up a business card left for him from the firm China Poly wants five zodiac heads returned to China for a new exhibit at the Poly Art Museum, a restoration of art stolen from China and acquired by art museums in the West during the earlier tumultuous colonization period in China. Wang Yuling, representative of China Poly, assembles Will’s team in Beijing to make her offer: return of the five zodiac heads for $50 million dollars. China will restore the original set of twelve bronze zodiac heads, and each member of the team receives 10 million dollars. It is enough money to pay off college debt, pay for graduate school, travel, support their families, or pursue any dream.

Li keeps the pace suspenseful but knows when to slow down and allow for self-doubt, planning, and a combination of youthful indecision and bravura. They are over- confident and absolutely scared, by turns. It is great fun following the action from Beijing to Boston, Stockholm to Paris. I recommend you read this slick, entertaining novel before the Netflix movie comes out.