Bestselling and witty satire of London life and the art world that is also a surprising and wonderful love story, winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction and shortlisted for the Baileys Prize
Hannah Rothschild is a writer and film director. Her documentary feature films have appeared on the BBC and HBO and at international film festivals. She has written film scripts for Ridley Scott and Working Title, and articles for Vanity Fair, the New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue and others. Her first book, The Baroness, was published in 2012 and has been translated into six languages. She is the Chair of the National Gallery, a trustee of the Tate Gallery and Waddesdon Manor, and a Vice President of the Hay Literary Festival. The Improbability of Love, her first novel, is the joint winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction 2016 and is shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2016. It was a BBC Radio 2 Book Club pick and one of the Guardian's Best Books of 2015. She lives in London. hannahrothschild.com / @RothschildHan
A deliciously wicked satire ... It’s exquisitely written,
shimmering with eye-catching detail, whether describing works of
art or the dishes on display at an extravagant banquet. Beneath all
that, there’s a serious debate about the value we put on things —
whether it’s art or relationships — and the prices we’re prepared
to pay. A masterpiece
*Daily Mail*
Novel of the week … It all adds up to an ingenious meditation on
the true value of art – timely indeed at a moment when paintings
and sculpture seem to have become just another currency
*Mail on Sunday*
Though this novel goes into the darkest of dark places, the overall
tone is totally delicious; conspicuous consumption on this scale
hasn’t been seen since the Eighties
*The Times*
Part of the novel’s charm is that its characters, rich or poor, are
all a mixture of frailties. Like a Rococo painting, this clever,
funny, beguiling and wholly humane romance is a treat worthy of its
subject
*Independent*
This frothy confection works on many levels, combining a touching
love story with an exciting whodunit sat in a hazardous, thrilling
world. The story unfolds slowly at first, building up the tension
until towards the end the chapters shorten and the pace quickens
with staccato satire worthy of the pen of Evelyn Waugh. A real
crowd pleaser ****
*Daily Express*
Hannah Rothschild is finally coming into her own. Soon to be head
of the National Gallery, her novel about the art world is bound to
be a bestseller
*Sunday Times*
Her writing shows brain as well as a heart
*Economist*
The Improbability of Love is a romp, a joy, and an inspired feast
of clever delights. Reading this book is like a raid on a high-end
pastry shop – you marvel at the expertise and cunning of the
creations, while never wanting the deliciousness to end
*Elizabeth Gilbert*
Every page is a joy. It's funny, sad, profound. The writing dances.
It has panache. It's beautifully structured. It wears its
scholarship with a balletic lightness and grace that shadows the
Rococo painting at its heart. Its many and varied characters are an
exquisite joy. Her range and emotional grasp is wonderful. What
more can I say? It's my Book of the Year already
*Barbara Trapido*
Impishly wicked, ruthlessly frank, touchingly percipient and
sometimes laugh aloud funny to boot. Hannah Rothschild captures the
contradiction between art as money and art as the soul of humanity
really well
*Rachel Campbell-Johnston, Art Critic for The Times*
Both a satire of the art world and a romance … It’s mischievous,
fun and on the money
*Tatler*
A timely reflection on art’s true value
*Observer*
What a delightful read – a satirical look at the world of art with
some love, mystery and comedy thrown in for good measure. There is
a darker element to the plot which I won’t spoil here, but it is
tempered by a wonderful cast of characters and has the unusual
addition of the painting as an occasional narrator. It’s certainly
a clever way of weaving the provenance of the painting into the
story
*Radio 2 Book Club*
Part detective story, part romance, the gripping narrative moves
between contemporary London and Nazi Germany, examining along the
way the meaning of love and loss, morality and greed, sacrifice and
decadence … the central theme of Nazi art theft is deftly handled.
An excellent and very funny debut
*The Lady*
Absorbing … Rothschild cleverly has the painting itself tell part
of the story and beautifully marshals a wealth of historical
detail
*Metro*
A novel that is so pleasurable I’ve read it twice, and will read it
again
*Glasgow Sunday Herald*
A bittersweet and highly enjoyable satire
*Woman & Home*
If you did not know much about the passion and power behind the
doors of the great auction houses and art dealers, you will by the
end of this enchanting tale … Part well-crafted mystery, part
thriller, part love story, Rothschild’s The Improbability of Love
takes its readers on a wonderful journey into a rarefied world
usually only experienced by the wealthy few
*Jewish Chronicle*
A capacious and fluently knowledgeable tale that excoriates with
mischievously satirical intent the viciously competitive world of
high-stakes art collecting ... Captivating ... Rothschild, the
first woman to chair London's National Gallery, is a dazzling
omniscient narrator giving voice to an irresistible cast of
reprobates and heroes ... An opulently detailed, suspensefully
plotted, shrewdly witty novel of decadence, crimes ordinary and
genocidal, and improbable love
*Booklist *
A frolicsome art-world caper … Ms. Rothschild writes with such
exuberance and spins such a propulsive yarn … Her erudition — about
restoration, authentication, art history in general – comes through
on page after page, and it’s one of the incidental pleasures of
reading The Improbability of Love, as are her mouthwatering
descriptions of the feasts Annie makes
*New York Times*
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