The Art of Secrets - Softcover

A Fire Destroys . . .
A Treasure Appears . . .
A Crime Unfolds . . .

When Saba Khan’s apartment burns in a mysterious fire, possibly a hate crime, her high school rallies around her. Her family moves rent-free into a luxury apartment; Saba’s Facebook page explodes; and she starts (secretly) dating a popular boy. Then a quirky piece of art donated to a school fund-raising effort for the Khans is revealed to be an unknown work by a famous artist and worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, and Saba’s life turns upside down again. Should Saba’s family have all that money? Or should it go to the students who found the art? Or to the school?

Greed, jealousy, and suspicion create an increasingly tangled web as students and teachers alike debate who should get the money, begin to point fingers, and make startling accusations. Through mon-ologues, journal entries, interviews, articles, and official documents, characters reveal how they see what happened. How readers see the truth will depend on their own ideas about empathy, generosity, and the darker corners of human nature

Saba Khan:
In a way, the fire might have been the best thing that ever happened to me. But maybe even writing that is t.o.o. r.e.v.e.a.l.i.n.g.

Steve Davinski:
Well, okay, yes, there has been some whispering the past couple of days here at Highsmith. Something exciting is going on, and I understand your curiosity. However, it is totally premature for us to discuss that topic today.

Jean Delacroix:
All right, then? Moving forward. I was the first person to realize that the Spoons’ “garbage art” was something special. The style of the work is unmistakable.

Kendra Spoon:
I’m not sure what to say. I’m more comfortable in a behind-the-scenes, stuffing-envelopes kind of role. I’m not a spokesperson or anything. Maybe you can talk to my brother, Kevin?

Kevin Spoon:
To be honest, it still blows my mind that I am one of the people who got this going. For the rest of my life, no matter what else I do, I can tell myself: How cool that you pulled that off. You changed that family’s life