The Guy, The girl, The Artist And His Ex by Gabrielle Williams

Allen & Unwin. 2015. ISBN: 9781743319550
(Age:14+) Highly recommended. This book is impossible to put down. It tells of the main characters Guy, Rafi, Luke and Penny - and the reader is simply compelled to find out what will happen next.
The book uses a real life event as the basis of the plot. In 1985 The National Gallery of Victoria had purchased the work "The Weeping Woman", by Picasso, for A$1.6 million. The theft was claimed to be made by a group calling itself "Australian Cultural Terrorists". After an anonymous tip-off to police, the painting was found undamaged in a locker at Spencer Street Station on 19 August 1986. The inclusion of letters to the editor from that time add values to the story.
So how do these four people feature here? Guy is a world class expert in Hacky Sack and is failing at school. A Girl (Rafi) is overly responsible, smart and lives with, and cares for, her mother. Her mother is tormented by the death of her son and believes in the curse of La Llorona. An artist (Luke) has a rebellious nature and is the one to watch, the one to buy - he just didn't care. The girl (Penny) used to live with Luke and has a young son, Joshie. She keeps hoping they will get back together.
The lives of Rafi, Penny, Luke and Guy intersect on one night in Melbourne - and their lives are changed forever.
This is a book about love, madness, art, grief and making mistakes. The story, heart-warming and heart breaking, is so beautifully written that the reader really cares about the characters and what will happen for them. This book also urges the reader search the internet to find out more about the heist and of La Llorona.
Linda Guthrie