The Improbability of Love is the perfect mix of art, love, mystery, and murder. Add an impoverished painter, a creative chef, a father-daughter team of cutthroat dealers, a Russian oligarch, a desperate auctioneer, an American socialite, and a flamboyant confidante to the über-wealthy for a fast-paced journey between 18th century Paris, World War II Berlin, and the art world of modern-day London. You’ll also learn a bit along the way about the famous but tragic painter Jean-Antoine Watteau, the Rococo period, and the fascinating world of art collecting.
The story unfolds when a down on her luck chef buys a grimy painting in a secondhand store and sets in motion a scramble to identify the artist and its provenance. Every owner, including the chef, has had a passion for the painting and a troubled past with love. The reader is clued into the history of the painting, also titled The Improbability of Love, when it takes on the role of narrator. (Once you’ve adjusted to the idea of a talking painting, you’ll look forward to its observations sprinkled throughout the novel.) The painting is eventually offered at auction and the whole art world is a buzz with the prospects of a record sale price and the reader is rewarded with a tale of true love.
Although, this is the first work of fiction for Hannah Rothschild, be assured the author knows her stuff; as a trustee of the Tate Gallery and the first woman chair of the National Gallery in London, she also writes for British Vanity Fair, Vogue, The Independent, and The Spectator. If you enjoy this novel, try her next one, House of Trelawney.
Mary White
Information Specialist
