The Improbability of Love - Hannah Rothschild

Annie McCann, alone after the disintegration of her long-term relationship and trapped in a dead-end job, is searching for a present for her unsuitable lover in a neglected second-hand shop. Within the jumble of junk and tack, a grimy, dusty painting catches her eye. Leaving the store with the picture after spending her meagre savings, she prepares an elaborate dinner for two, only to be stood up, the gift gathering dust on her mantelpiece.

But every painting has a story - and if it could speak, what would it tell us?

For Annie has stumbled across 'The Improbability of Love', a lost masterpiece by Antoine Watteau, one of the most influential French painters of the eighteenth century. Soon Annie is drawn unwillingly into the art world, and finds herself pursued by a host of interested parties that would do anything to possess her picture. For an exiled Russian oligarch, an avaricious Sheika, a desperate auctioneer, an unscrupulous dealer and several others, the painting symbolises their greatest hopes and fears. In the process of revealing the painting's past, Annie will uncover not just an illustrious list of former owners, but the darkest parts of European history - and in doing so, she will learn more about herself, opening up to the possibility of falling in love again.

Please note this copy has light creases on the spine and to the cover.

ISBN: 9781408862452

Size: Trade paperback, 416 pages

Publisher: Bloomsbury 

Published: 2015