The Guy, the Girl, the Artist and His Ex
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
When one of the most famous paintings in the world is stolen, four young lives are changed, for four very different reasons.
The Guy decides to have a house party while his parents are out of town. The Girl is adjusting to life in a new country. The Artist has discovered that forgery is a lucrative business. And his Ex, mother of his baby, is just trying to make ends meet.
As Guy, a feckless high-school senior, plans the party of the year, Rafi worries about her mother, who is still grieving over the drowning death of Rafi’s little brother back in Bolivia and haunted by the specter of La Llorona, the weeping ghost who steals children.
Meanwhile, Rafi’s uncle is an art dealer involved in a scheme to steal one of the most famous paintings in the world, but he needs the forgery skills of Luke, a talented artist who has just split up with his girlfriend, Penny, who wants nothing more than to get him back to be a proper father to Joshie, the baby Rafi babysits.
Engaging, provocative, darkly humorous and fast-paced, with a shocking and near-tragic ending, when Rafi’s mother’s grief tips over into mental illness.
Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.3
Describe how a particular story's or drama's plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.6
Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The 1986 theft of Picasso's Weeping Woman from the National Gallery in Melbourne, Australia, has unforeseen consequences for Williams's (Beatle Meets Destiny) four narrators, whose stories overlap and culminate in a shocking event. Guy is an unmotivated high school senior throwing the party of the year. Seventeen-year-old Rafi is disciplined and driven, responsible for a mentally ill mother mourning the death of her three-year-old son. Luke, 27, is an antiestablishment rising art star with a young son he rarely sees. And Penny, Luke's ex, is a 23-year-old college graduate navigating single motherhood. An intimate third-person narrative shifts among all four, providing perspective and insight into each of them and their relationships as the ripple effects of the theft grow. Rafi and Penny are perhaps the most compelling characters: Rafi must confront her own choices and difficult truths about her mother, while Penny fully comes into her own, taking charge of her and her son's futures. Guy and Luke, by contrast, are largely passive and unchanged by events. Quiet but layered, Williams's story lingers. Ages 13 up.
